I open the door, and the smell greets me like I had never been without it, and I walk into the room and close the door with relief. It is dark, because I haven’t turned on the light, and the smell wraps around me. I am not afraid of the darkness. As I make my way about getting ready for sleep, I breathe deeply, and the smell fills all the little places between stresses. It is good, it is welcoming, it is safe. Safe. The feeling washes over me, through me, and as I pull the warm blanket over me I pause. I could, as is my usual habit, pull it over my head so all that is exposed is a breathing space, but as I draw in another breath I close my eyes and rest my head on the pillow. The blanket is over my shoulders, tucked around my neck, and feels like I am wrapped all around in soft warmth. For a time I lay there, each steady breath easier than the last. I am home, I am safe, and I have never been so glad to be so.
Author’s Note: The above is as originally written, it has not been edited. This is deliberate. Freewrites are not designed to be perfect, they’re designed to take something and run with it, to be creative in a short burst about something that may or may not be related to anything you’re working on. Today, I needed to do something creative, and here it is. It’s not perfect, it doesn’t sparkle, it’s just another little piece of motivational mass, sitting there waiting to be used somewhere later. I put this up, as is, because I wanted to prove that while it’s hard and scary, being able to look at your work honestly, in all draft and creative stages, can be done. Now that it’s here, I might come back and edit it, I might take this moment and put it in a longer piece. I might just read it over a couple of times to get an idea of how I naturally write, before the Inner Editor gets hold of me. This is a sort of starting point, a look at the raw materials or an initial exploration, what it could become is unknown and full of potential. After all, if it’s not on the page, it makes it very hard to edit, doesn’t it?
Work in Progress 