Creative Pieces: Wandering Thoughts, Young Minds, Letting Go, and Peaceful Endings

This column consists of creative pieces written by me. Some might be a continued story, some might be poetry, some might be short stories from start to finish. You never know what you might get so, be ready for anything. Today’s piece is about wandering thoughts, young minds, letting go, and peaceful endings.

Since there are multiple characters in the continued stories, each story will indicate the character POV to clarify who is telling the story today.

Previous post:

The Bubble Mindset.

Here is a currated playlist that reflects the mood of this and all other pieces published for this column. Listen before, during, or after reading:


POV: Joy

I pilled my jacket into a pillow and laid my head down on it in the grass, watching the clouds slowly drift in the sky on an endless journey. My playlist cued White Ferrari and I was immediately swimming in the deepest of Frank’s Oceans. Maybe that’s not how most people would phrase that. I do tend to go off on metaphorical tangents but if you’re going to be in my thoughts you’re just going to have to deal with it.

Mondays are always sort of tense for me. Even if I feel like I have nothing to do taking a well-needed break on a Monday feels wrong. So, today I decided to enjoy the rare warm weather and sunlight on nature’s carpet in the park behind my building.

As I look around the park and see the sun squeezing through the leaves hoping to catch a glimpse of my exposed skin, I thought about everything and nothing. I let my thoughts go where they took me. Sometimes good, happy thoughts, and sometimes anxious overthinking. They bounce off of each other, indecisive like the weather in Berlin during springtime. I thought about things I lost and things I have. I thought about things I need to do and things I’ve done. I thought about our place in this world, in the universe. I thought about a little bit of everything and a little bit of nothing.

I lit the joint I had rolled in my room, not worrying about my mother’s commentary because she had none. I do consider my mother’s understanding of my physical freedom as a privilege not all of my friends had. My thoughts led me to Ivan who came to my house the other day looking for a place to stay. My mother loves the hell out of Ivan so she didn’t mind and with my father’s old art studio being long gone, a memory that disappeared into an aesthetically pleasing guest room with plants and pastel colors, there was definitely enough room to house my friend in need. Ivan and I have been friends since the preschool days. He’s family at this point.

The relaxing effects of the Gelatto flavored substance eased my mind into random, pleasant thoughts, constantly distracting each other and never really sticking to one subject. At this point, the playlist went from White Ferrari to Godspeed to Missing Out to ROS. My curated playlist reminding me of what was but at the same time keeping me calm about the present. You know those songs that you can just always listen to? No matter if you’re feeling sad or happy, or even if the song reminds you of an unpleasant time in your life, whenever you listen to that song you feel a sort of peaceful energy taking over your body. It just makes you feel good, or better.

I laid there for another half hour until Ivan came down and plopped himself next to me, stealing a headphone and silently enjoying the sunny Monday with me. The worrisome daily thoughts seemed to fade away just for a second as my mind finally clears itself to find peace in nothingness. I mentally affirm myself of my hopes, dreams, and goals as I drift off into the dream world.

Here are a pictures from three different locations showing a variety of skies I’ve seen pre and post first + second wave.

California

January 1, 2020 17:07, Culver City, CA
December 16, 2019, 16:28 Santa Monica Pier, CA

Maine

September 5, 2020 11:35 Edinburg, ME
August 19, 2020 19:29 Orono, ME

Berlin

March 26, 2021 16:37, Tempelhof, Berlin Germany


Photos by Jasmin Kraenzel