PROMPTED WORDS ON A PAGE

Three Shitty Little Lies We Tell Ourselves

They’re the bricks in walls we build to isolate ourselves from living

Photo by remi skatulski on Unsplash

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

― Oscar Wilde

A prompt for today, courtesy of Prompt Yourself. I saw it this morning while out in my neighborhood. Strolling while scrolling, oblivious, I was sleepwalking through a perfect Santa Monica morning. There might have been a lush canopy of ficus above, crisp fallen leaves suggesting fall’s onset below, or a garden on my right with a pup longing for a stranger’s caress. I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t there.

Deep in my feed, I nearly stepped on a squirrel on the sidewalk. He stood tall on his haunches and peered, puzzled, at the human bowed in allegiance to the little box in her hand.

I woke up. “Sorry,” I said.

“Nut?” he inquired.

“Not today,” I told him.

Chocolate chip eyes melted holes in my back as I walked away, the IOU implied. Nuts, unspecified quantity.

Sure.

With lies of every color though we call them all white, we wall ourselves in until life is on the other side and we’re…