This Week’s 3 Randomly Generated Words:
Oyster
Lentil
Box
Carol stared down at the cardboard box, How the fuck to oysters work with lentils?
Freddy sniffed the box suspiciously. His tail whipped back and forth.
“Yeah, I don’t trust it either.” Carol tossed the box onto a pile of similar boxes filled with rotting vegetables and the best of intentions. They teetered for a moment then crashed sideways spilling weeks of food across the floor. Carol jumped. Freddy darted under the couch.
Silence descended like a clap of thunder.
Carol sighed and pulled out the trash can. Maybe it’s time to just accept my Mac ‘n’ Cheese ways.
This flash fiction started as a joke. No, literally! I was laughing with my friend about not knowing how to weave these three words into a single story. I threw out Carol’s first line as a joke. But (shock of shocks!) it landed. So I started playing with it. As I wrote, the story took life… rather, it reflected my life.
There are a lot of expectations I’ve grown up with. Expectations that just don’t match who I am. For example, I’m never going to be the sort of person who makes my own furniture. (Not that I’m knocking on anyone who does! More power too you. It’s just not for me.)
Those expectations came from people who found what worked for them. But, that didn’t mean it would work for me. So, by letting go of those expectations, it gave me the space to find what truly works for me.
It’s kind of like a reversal of the old saying: “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” Letting go of those expectations (for me) is a lot like taking out the garbage.
~Ari