Month: August 2023

5 Minute Stretch

5 Minute Stretch

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“a fine line between precision and self-indulgence”

“There’s a fine line between precision and self-indulgence,” she says, looking smugly at me.

If only she knew she was right, that line has been made all the finer by her self-indulgent communications. Speaking to me but really speaking to herself, the same way she makes love, creates a sandwich, answers the phone…as though everything is really about her, especially when it is.

She calls her movements, her communication, her fucking “precise.” And I suppose it is. She has an expectation, she has a need, a desire, and this force that is her self must be satisfied. Still…while it’s dizzying at first, sucking you in, gracing you with it’s ethereal existence, time makes it grating, jarring, fucking annoying.

I could say “shut up,” but I don’t. I could simply walk out, walk away, move on with my life free from her pull…but I don’t. I can’t. Not really. But I can only put up with so much of this….

5 Minute Stretch Exercises are a creation of Laura Munson and were learned at Haven Writing Retreats. Write for five minutes, no corrections or stopping.
This prompt was taken from Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg.

Writing Prompt Winner: Kim Pitts

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July 2023: Kim Pitts

“Mom is Pacing”

My Mom is pacing. Inside, a intiny voice says, “make it better” because I have been trying my whole life. That tiny voice also says, “you aren’t good enough : “ because I actually cannot do that. Then, a bigger voice, not quite as well used, but growing ever more recognizable says, “that’s not your job”. So I sit, thinking a part of me wants to make it better, a part of me wants to finally be able to acknowledge that it isn’t my job, and a new emerging patr of me struggles because it has to make a distinction between the two. Her sadness, I cannot make better. Her depression, I cannot make better. Her grief, I cannot make better. Not because I am unable, but because it was not my job. And to that tiny voice, I say, “I’m so sorry that you thought it ever was.”

Kim Pitts is a writer and compassionate humorist. Her unique and traumasaurus rex sized ability to turn awful situations into beautiful, hilarious stories of pure humanity can be found on Facebook and Instagram as My Life is The Pitts Family.