My brain is shrinking

Yours too?

I worry about my brain—that I’ll go senile and lose my memory.

Alzheimer’s took my dad. Dementia took my grandmother. I feel it slipping away, too.

My attention is scattered. I walk into rooms and forget what I came for. I keep running lists on notepads in every room of the house, panicked that I’ll forget to do whatever pops into my head if I don’t write it down that instant.

Now, this obsession with micro-fiction and 50-word stories.

I’ve always been a fan of short story as an art form, but lately, I’ve had a hard time reading anything but—the shorter, the better.

And I don’t think my social media addiction is helping.

The good news

Last week FiftyWordStories.com published one of my stories, Still Life.

WooHOO! 🥳

After years of rejections (or, let's be honest, years of being too scared to submit), one of my tiny tales found a home.

That was a first for me and quite a thrill!

But I’m still worried

I can’t tell if my obsession with brevity is damaging my brain or saving it. For now, I’m enjoying the challenge.

Here are three of my favorites from this week:

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Love seat

Every night, we sit on this couch. You hate this furniture. It's old, uncomfortable, the wrong color, "Not your style," you say. And you deserve better.

Every night, I make popcorn, sit next to you, and squirm. Scared. Afraid I'm not enough.

And yet, every night, you still choose me.

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Help Desk

I wanted to ask about your work.

I wanted to ask, "How do you do it? How do you hold space for so many suffering souls? How do you care deeply and lean into each encounter with such presence?”

I wanted to ask, but you were unavailable. Helping someone else.

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Heroes

As a boy, I skated the frozen river behind your firehouse. You watched from the window, offering cocoa when my cheeks turned red.

On summer evenings, we shot hoops until dark, or the alarm stopped everything. "Someone needs help," you'd smile, pulling on your gear.

Yesterday, that someone was you.

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Fun ahead!

Well, I pledged to myself that I’d write a 50-word story every day for the month of February, and I’m almost halfway there.

If you missed last week's stories, you can find them here.

If you're inspired to try writing your own, remember that word counter tool I mentioned. It has a nice writing interface, and seeing your word count as you write is a lifesaver!

Talk to you next week.

I love you guys ❤️‍🔥

-Paul

P.S. Being published feels amazing... even if it’s not a HUGE literary journal. - Maybe it's time for you to dust off that story you've been hiding away? Just sayin... 😉