Word Vomit

There’s a scene in Mean Girls where Lindsey Lohan’s character experiences one of those moments when words just seem to come out of your mouth on their own accord. She calls it word vomit. The term is disgusting, but I think the idea is accurate.

There are times that I’ve valued this in my life – not necessarily the words I say or my inability to control them, but rather that I’m with people with whom I may do this. Dinah Mulock wrote a great poem about this idea, called "Friendship":

Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

There are also times when I’ve longed to do this on a personal, private level, when things are too overwhelming or I’m just too tired to think through things clearly. Times when I just need to write, to express what I’m thinking, in whatever form that takes. Sometimes it looks like a journal entry, sometimes it looks more like a to-do list, and sometimes, like tonight, it looks like some kind of planning/evaluation sheet.

Really, what it amounts to, is that I’m stopping and taking time to identify a problem. This, at least in my problem-solving mind, leads me to consider the real causes of the problem, and possible solutions.

I’m tired tonight, and this has been a very busy week. And, next week is not going to get much better. It seems that every spare moment is filled with things to which I’ve already committed, so there’s not even much I can do to lessen the load – I just need to ride it out, and hold on to every possible second of sleep I can grab.

In the midst of this, my house is a mess – a fact that alone is responsible for no small bit of stress. So, I’m trying to identify (in a detailed way) the problems, and consider solutions. I have several ideas – everything from routines, to habits, to organizational products I need to buy. I just need to prioritize them among all the other things on my to-do lists.