Ten Metaphors For Imagining Your Thoughts

1 Imagine your thoughts as clouds passing in the sky while you lie in a green field. Do not imagine a thunderstorm, or a rowboat on a choppy sea, or a mound of fire ants hidden in the patchy grass. Just imagine the clouds.

2. Imagine your thoughts as crows coming and going on a black telephone line. Do not count the crows or name the crows after people that you used to know. Just imagine the crows coming and going.

3. Imagine your thoughts as soap bubbles floating down onto your body and then popping. Do not imagine how quickly the hot water in a bath becomes lukewarm. Just imagine the floating bubbles.

4. Imagine your thoughts as leaves falling from a maple in autumn. Do not imagine the smell of smoke in the air from the impending wildfires that often accompany October’s falling leaves. Just imagine the pleasant swaying descent of the leaves.

5. Imagine your thoughts as random electrical firings in your brain. Something involving synapses and dendrites. Don’t imagine a power outage up there. Just little electrical signals that somehow form thoughts.

6. Imagine your thoughts as stray cats meowing in the back of a Thai restaurant where the line cook leaves out a bowl of cool Thai iced tea for the kitties and they grow increasingly tubby as they sip on the sweet tamarind milk. Do not imagine the fighting that would inevitably ensue, and the orange-tinted milk flying everywhere.

7. Imagine your thoughts as the dust in the corners you vacuum up with the dog fur every few days. The dust and dried vegetation which find their way into the house on the fur of the two lovely and unaware dogs. Do not imagine yourself sneezing because of all that dust when you empty the vacuum.

8. Imagine your thoughts as kernels of popcorn popping on a stove, with a bit of garlic and sea salt. Serve your thoughts to yourself with a nice cold beverage. Eat your thoughts mindlessly.

9. Imagine your thoughts as squirrels chasing each other up a giant redwood, perhaps hoping to mate with each other, perhaps just playing around as young squirrels with plenty of leisure time tend to do.

10. Imagine your thoughts as the island of plastic waste floating somewhere out in the ocean. Someday, perhaps someone will clean that plastic up but only you can let go of your thoughts.