When I was still a young child,
I believed that
if only I concentrated
hard enough,
I could move objects
with my mind.

So intense was my thinking
that I believed,
with the help of physics,
I could use my energy to
stream my thoughts
across space,
like an invisible river
of electrons,
to push and lift and
swirl whatever I wished
into motion.

That child is still within me,
pushing me to create magic.
I’ve born the disappointment
of each failure,
briefly feeling unfulfilled
in my relative objectives.

Not redirected
but reinvigorated,
I moved towards
another subject
and another
and another…

Until I came to realize that
I could indeed move people
with my words,
my music,
my art.

It seemed to have a power
all its own.

And I was simply the path
that it followed.

The above prose was written as part of a 3-minute prompted exercise during a six-week workshop offered by @LauraLentzWriter and her Literati Academy. The writers participating in this series are exploring their way through grief and the hero’s journey.