Sometimes, I really need nothing. Nothing. No deep thoughts, no wanting to do something, no imaginary conversation in my head, no immediate pursuit. Simple nothing. Neurons resting, synapses not sparking, dendrites sagging in idleness. Brain taking a deep breath and kicking back on the porch. Desperately pursuing nothing.

I can crumple up the internal to-do list and start it over. Re-prioritize life. And then move out of the nothing.

I get caught up in the false-importance of all the trivialities that I mistake for things of consequence or significance. Most of them take on that guise because I keep going back to them. I empower the irrelevant by paying attention to it, because I don’t stop for 4 seconds. Stop. Stop and not-think before, out of habit, I make any old thought into some profundity I need to chase after.

Nothing is what I have to do until I learn to stop. Stop. Stop and non-think. Because after I stop — a full, complete, motionless stop — I can start again, with the trivial left back behind me.