Tuesday Dispatch: A Simple Story
A freewrite and a prompt for you ✍️
They're in the shower listening to something with a solid beat and harmonica. The dog just pushed the bathroom door open with her snoot. It's so ordinary you could laugh.
We longed for this, the ordinary, plain, simple things – wandering around the market deciding what to have for dinner, sitting and watching chipmunks, asking if everything is ok at 3:00am when you realize they're up looking at cute things on Pinterest after another nightmare, the Traveling Wilburys singing, "Well, it's all right...", the dog now lying on the little rug by the tub, standing guard lest anyone barge into the bathroom, little dog keeping us safe, little dog who is getting a blueberry vanilla facial at the new groomer's on Thursday, I kid you not.
It's a simple story if you strip away all of the not simple parts.
A bunch of years go by and suddenly you realize this is the person who knows things about you no one else knows, this is the person who comes with you to the scary follow-up appointment, this is the person who washes the bedding on Friday mornings because they know how welcoming Shabbat with clean sheets is one of your favorite little things in life, this is the person who says, "ok, honey" when you hang up sometimes and it makes you feel cared for, this is the person who taught you that conflict isn't an emergency, that apologies and simple questions like, "is there anything else you need from me right now?" can be a threshold between hurt and release, that you don't have to rush pleasure or avoid pain, that you can sit and drop your shoulders and scratch their back and take your time and follow your heart and all that good stuff.
The shower is off now, the June soundtrack plays on, the sounds of various bottles opening and closing, lotions and potions and scents, the way they prepare for a brand new day, the way you both lived long lonely years, the way a day of simple touch points is a gift you hope never to take for granted again.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and write a simple story. Don’t worry about whether it’s good writing. Just get words on the page and see what happens.