Have you ever recieved a voicemail message where the person begins giving you important information but then, suddenly, they start sounding like a carousel? The information is being repeated – again – with nothing new to say. The person just doesn’t know how to end the voicemail message and, wanting to make certain you understand the information and also out of lack of preparation, keeps talking. While you, the listener is thinking, “Yup. Ok, GOT IT. Stop talking.”
What power lies in brevity, eh?
The beautiful thing about voicemail is that it’s an opportunity to leave something memorable. It can be a message of information, greeting, memo, humor, love, or nothingness. It can be anything, but it must be brief. The window is open only a few inches. No sense in trying to fit your whole body through when a wave from your hand will suffice.
It is oftentimes the person/writer who spends more time in active preparation and expels fewer words than the gregarious individual with long laces of prose who stays with us. This may be difficult to do with trauma and healing when there is so much emotional memory, so practice your power for succinct writing . Fine-comb your memory for the gold and leave it on the page. Take out what you WANT to fit and leave only what does.
Choose the largest stones. Let go of the pebbles.
The Dear Sister Anthology 