Sunday journalling prompt

Messages from the things we avoid

Hello,

On the table in my hall, buried under a pile of magazines and school notes, is an envelope.

About three months ago, I opened this envelope, read its contents and thought for a while. It didn’t contain bad news - nor, particularly, good news - and its contents didn’t shake my world view. But its implications were complex. I would need to act, but there wasn’t a clear route to take action. Getting it wrong would cause conflict. I would have to think for a while. I stuffed the letter back into its case and walked away.

Since then, the envelope has become invisible to me, just another part of the everyday congress of my house. But I’ve thought about it a lot, mulling over the steps I would need to take in order to address it, the right person to ask, the right angle of approach. On any given day, it all seems a little too much. Something else always comes along, and pushes this particular task aside. My prevarication - or procrastination, depending on your point of view - goes on. 

It is telling that the envelope hasn’t made it onto my To Do list. That would render it more visible to me. Instead, it is safely hidden in plain sight. I am waiting, I suppose, for someone to make me open it again.