That Whisper of a Smoldering Thought

I suspect this happens to us all. During the night, in the fringe between sleep and awake where you are only slightly conscious, a thought will come to you. It may be something about work, a product or process solution that has been in the works for weeks; an answer that has eluded you to the point of total frustration.   Or it might be just a random thought that you felt was overly profound and you decided to remember that thought and write it down first thing in the morning. Well, morning comes and for the life of your best friend you cannot remember what it was. A whisper of smoke from the smoldering ashes of your thought is all that lingers.

Try as hard as you might you cannot formulate that thought into words. This happens to me all the time.

I was told by a friend to keep a pad and paper beside the bed and when a thought comes to mind make the conscious effort to grab your pen and paper and write it down. Sound advice and I did that once and it works, except the next morning I couldn’t read what I wrote.

I guess I am stuck with what comes to mind while I am fully conscious.   Unfortunately so are you if you expend the time to read what I write. Some who read my lame excuse for literature tell me I should write more; so I will. Perhaps, after a while, they will see the errors associated with that recommendation.

As I come up with thoughts I often write them down if I am able. Often a thought will come to mind while riding that endless road and by the time I stop for gas the thought is gone leaving only a faint footprint of its existence. Thoughts range from the mundane to the profound; at least I think them profound. There is neither rhyme nor reason to my patterns of thought while riding, but I do not think I am the only one can claim that trait.

Maybe someday a profound thought will come to me while I’m putting gas in the bike.