be happy for no reason
It didn’t take long to learn to keep my head down so I wouldn’t have to look at anyone during my walk, and the fact that it meant no one could tell if I was crying was an additional bonus. It was easier, really, since the pitying looks of passersby only made me feel worse.
Staring downward, I counted bricks until I knew exactly how many I stepped over during each possible route.
I continued to stare at the bricks even after they’d all been counted. For a while I tried to find patterns in cracks and chips and uneven corners.
Anything to avoid looking up.
Then the bricks started talking to me.
I thought the messages were random diminutive graffiti until they occasionally addressed me by name.
Some days they spout fortune cookie-esque wisdom, other times they compliment my socks.
I take extra walks now, to see what the bricks have to say, and sometimes I get so distracted by looking for the messages that I forget to cry.
About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.
5 Comments
brianne · November 9, 2012 at 12:05 pm
There is a brick I occasionally walk by that has a poem about peanut butter.
Cait · November 10, 2012 at 8:54 am
I’ve one that tells me to dream. I did, and now I can’t stop. I’m okay with this.
laura · November 12, 2012 at 9:07 am
black, white and red…and a little circus-y:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNMA1MsTyuE&feature=player_embedded
nice job at the fitz…
program designer, talking volumes
Marcheline · November 14, 2012 at 6:24 am
Am in the grips of NaNoWriMo… swinging between despair at ever catching up to my word count and being thrilled at catching up to my word count. Terrified because I have no idea how the story will actually end. Wishing I was independently wealthy and could spend all morning in my robe, writing, instead of dashing off to work and having to cram the writing in at the end of the day.
Love this brick story. Will walk around looking down more often, myself.
Magpie Monday | Robert E. Stutts · November 12, 2012 at 5:55 am
[…] Flax-golden tales: Be Happy for No Reason by Erin Morgenstern […]
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