Today has been a hard day, for reasons I can't really get into at the moment, but it got me thinking about many things, among them why I write stories.

Short answer is because I can't not.

I have this enormous and amazingly active imagination, and if I didn't "harness" it to stories, it will get out another way, and maybe take me with it in a way I never get back from.

And we have a name for people trapped in an imaginary story their mind is creating ...

It also got me thinking about grief. A few years back I wrote a little essay on grief which you can read here:

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/18677/grief

But I have come to realized there was something I forgot to mention in that essay. If you are unlucky enough to have more than one thing causing you grief, you can't bundle them together and deal with them as a unit.

Each grief is its own journey, even if you're having to deal with more than one at a time.

I have had my share of grief in my past, but even as I work on those I can't ignore a new grief. I wish I could talk about it, but because it involves another person, I will have to just say things aren't good, and hugs are appreciated ...

The third thing I've been thinking about is in my current circumstance, I have to be "the strong one". My mom is all but falling apart under the stress of a possible move, and its gonna be up to me to keep things from going sideways.

And considering my most recent grief on top of what I normally have to deal with and my own struggles with the stresses of a possible move, I honestly don't know how I'm gonna manage ...

Ah, well.