Voice Lessons

Metaphor

Free write exercise

As a writer, I am encouraged to write about my life every day. Journaling helps to understand and can really help process your emotions. However, as I mentioned in my previous essay, I realize that I am not someone who can do that. I don’t know why, but I don’t like talking about specifics. So I speak in metaphor. It helps me process my emotions while being able to explain them to others. So many people feel the way I do yet. Can’t get others to understand. As a writer my goal is to help people explain their emotions in a way That everyone can relate to.

The problem is because of my fast thoughts, I often forget them or I’m too tired to write them down or know that I won’t be able to keep those thoughts in my head. But occasionally, I am pushed to get up out of bed and write down a couple metaphors that I have thought about. I don’t feel like they are something I need to explore today, but I work in progress that needs to be explored further in the future when writing is my vocation.

This morning, as I lay in bed, my thoughts turned to my children as most mothers do. I am afraid they are slowly drifting away from me and I will lose them. How can I make them understand that I still love them and that I don’t have to agree with them to float in the same sky. My metaphor came to mind. My life is like a hot air balloon ride. And so many equalities came to me I couldn’t write them fast enough. So I’m speaking them here hoping that it will help inspire me to write a new essay or short story in the future.

My biggest challenge these days is trying to adjust watching my children drift away from me. And a hot air balloon ride came to mind. So I start to think about different parts of the balloon and how they equate to life. So I start at the beginning. When we are born, we are all given a balloon. It’s deflated and it’s our job to fill it up. Get it in the air and get to God who is the final destination.



And I know that this works. I have watched my mother float away and reach her destination. I know she’s not there trying to show me that I need to stay on the path that she has marked.


So when I am given some damn balloons, I am so thrilled to teach them what I have learned. I gather all of the necessary items around me. I tell them what they need to get their balloons in the air. I have to make sure they have the cast they need to get their balloon up in the air, And tell them the kind of fuel required. I show them how we ride in a basket and then it is safe and warm and comfortable and will definitely get us there safely.

As we pump air into the balloon and watch it, fill up my children sometimes don’t pay attention. They look at all of the other balloons and see how beautiful they are. Do you think our balloon is too plain. I told him it might be plain, but it is thicker and has more fuel and will get us there in the safest way. The other balloons, though pretty, often pop and fall, and are unable to maintain their fuel. but it doesn’t matter because they can get there however they want. My job is to make sure my children are in my basket and arrive safely. As we begin to float in the air, I show them the map. My parents gave me and how they have already marked the path to get there. and I have always planned on following that route behind them. But the higher we float, the more my children see, they don’t focus on what’s going inside of our family basket. They are too busy watching all of the beautiful scenery around them. How it never occurred to me to look up? To look around and see all of the beauty around me? Perhaps I should be enjoying it more? Perhaps our other ways to get to the same destination. And I think they can get there however they want. But I’m not sure the map they have we’ll get them there. A lot of them don’t even have a map and we’re lucky enough to be able to even get off the ground.

So I told my children it’s OK to look around as long as they know where the basket is. I’d prefer they stay in mine, but I understand that the other ways to travel might be more exciting. Other balloons have different kinds of fuel, some fires are bigger than others, some balloons are bigger than others, some are more decorative, and some are more plain, and while I know and have seen the skyline And I enjoy the beauty around me I float long knowing the gift I was given and want to pass my children the same.

But they did more of them look around. They found others in different types of baskets. Some were big, some are small, some were full, some were not, some were even baskets. Somewhere ridden hanging from the balloon with no basket at all. Some had string and some had a thread. Soon my children leave my basket and start to fly on their own. I give them ropes so I can pull them closer to me when they may start floating away. But they enjoy the view. They start wondering if I’ve even taught them correctly. So they want to fly on their own and try all of the different colors around them. and it had never occurred to me that they wouldn’t see the beauty we are heading for and want to get there. There are other destinations on some of them are beautiful, but I know the best place to go. Their friends give them weights that are beautiful. They don’t understand. They will keep them from floating. I want them to cut those weights. It had never occurred to me that those weights would find their way into their baskets.

Don’t right about here is where I start to rethink my metaphor go back and try to adjust some of the qualities. Perhaps the weights I have given my children are necessary for stability. To keep you in the basket and floating at a steady paste towards home. It never occurred to me that they wouldn’t want to float steadily home. So they cut some of the weights and I watch them sink. But there is a large group of balloons together that are still floating and appear to be happy. We can both achieve the same destination. It had never occurred to me that my children wouldn’t want to go to the destination I taught them. I mean, I knew there were other places out there, but they’re really undesirable. I know that from people who I’ve been there before. But perhaps I didn’t see the whole map. Perhaps my children are showing me new ways to get there. And I just want to go back to my basket and my map where I knew I was safe and happy. They’re having a great time and throwing parties in their baskets, and I am proud of that. They are able to float on their own. It had an occurred to me either that they could still get where I’m going just in a different way. And while it’s not as comfortable, I’m happy that they have a map. They may chart a different path, but it will still get them there so I adapt And agree with them that though I didn’t show them that perhaps their way still works.

Someone has given them a knife, and they are slowly severing the ropes that keep the basket moving. The ropes that by myself installed. I was sure I had the fittings correct. I am sure the knots were tight enough. But I am slowly, relaxing that they looked right but they weren’t tight enough. And my children know that. They have seen through the look of not a no it isn’t as tight as it should be they decide to tie their own. And I don’t know how tight those will be. I’m just glad I have those solid ropes attached. But as we keep floating, some of them are slowing down and deciding they have already reached their destination. and then I slowly run out of gas and know that I need to think through the metaphor some more. It applies well, but perhaps the gas is compared to something else in life. I have to think it through and I will have some further point in the future. I have thoughts like that every morning and I assume they’ll come back to me eventually. Almost everything does. I have to think it through, research how to fly balloons, find out what kind of equipment they use, and then decide which metaphor applies to which piece of equipment. And write about their I also lose interest. My mind shifts to something else and the thought disappears. But it never comes back to me, it never comes back around, or if it does, I’ve lost the inspiration.

Occasionally, though, as in this morning, I cannot ignore the nagging thought in my head that I must write this down. But it will have some meaning somewhere in the future. I don’t have the energy, the ability, or the impetus to even explore it right now. I negative thoughts kick in and I tell myself it doesn’t matter anyway. No one’s going to read it. And yes, I write through metaphor so others can understand those feelings and apply them to their own lives. That’s why I write. I don’t necessarily do it for myself, but as a way to understand and share different life events so this morning I could not ignore getting this on paper. Or on my blog at least. I understand now that this will be important sometime in the future and I’ll need to explore it more. And my thoughts keep spinning and spinning and spinning and changing different things to different things before I know it. It’s one big puddle again. And I don’t want to start over and reinflate that balloon. I am lost in metaphor and will be for quite a while. Writing can be so frustrating. But this is the way my mind works. People always ask me why I don’t write more and I ask myself the same question. i’m sure there is a reason. At least God has told me so. But maybe all the fuel and brightness of my balloon is just gaslight my children tell me it is. My children tell me I have not experienced or looked hard enough and that they found their own way. and I’m happy they can do that. I’m proud of them for forging their own path and being confident enough to do so. I know that no matter what they still have my map and the path I marked and should they get lost at least they know how to get back.

I have turned it over and over in my head at this point and have lost interest for now. But I’m glad I got it on paper this time at least. It seems I get thoughts like that a lot and I rarely write them down. God or possibly my mother had to kick me in the butt to get me out of bed and write it down. I don’t get inspiration often so this morning I listened. Let’s see if it helps.