When the Quiet Things Speak Loud
By Elmira Olson
When my books awakened, I was inundated with their whispers.
I had hundreds piled on shelves, all unread. Tired of abandonment, they clamoured to share their stories in an incessant susurrus of sentences. Desperate plotlines and strange settings merged, unrecognizable. Heathcliff and Katniss and Bilbo and Violet shoved themselves into my unprotected consciousness with no regard for sense and order.
I shouldn’t have spent those long hours doomscrolling, but my phone resides forever with me, inescapeable. It steals and warps each scrap of attention.
My books no longer tolerate neglect. But they’re too late.
My mind is an unworthy vessel.
Elmira Olson has lived her whole life on the Canadian prairies; the first half on a farm in Saskatchewan, and the second half in Edmonton, Alberta. She loves doing anything creative – writing, painting, arts and crafts, with varying degrees of ability.
Yes! This story absolutely resonates with me.
I hate my phone and acquire a physical book at least once a month.