Don’t Run Out!

by Nancy Casey

By now you’ve probably seen the of images of empty shelves in stores. Or heard lots of jokes about hoarding toilet paper. Maybe you have done some stocking up. It’s perfectly reasonable not to want to run out of things that are important to you.

What don’t you want to run out of?

Think about that as you set up your page for a bit of writing. Draw a line at the top where the title will go, and set off a space for doodling or illustration.

What matters to you in your life?

There are material things, of course. Most people care about food, shelter and clothing. Food gets consumed and you will always need more. Clothing wears out or becomes wrong for the season, or sometimes you just don’t like what you have anymore and want new things. Running out of shelter entirely is a tragedy, and you also don’t want to run out of the things that make your shelter clean, sturdy and comfortable.

What specific things in the food, shelter, and clothing departments don’t you want to run out of?

Beyond the basics, there are other material things that we want to have in our lives—art supplies, technology, gasoline, potting soil, novels, candy… The list is endless, and nobody should be ashamed of what they want.

There are also non-material things that we don’t want to drain from our lives. Affection, perhaps? Laughter? Information? Understanding? What invisible things would cause you a visible or invisible wound if they left your life and never came back?

Write about what you don’t want to run out of today. To get started, you can use a sentence in the form of:

I don’t want to run out of ­­­______, because….

You can then explain why this thing is important for you. You might also want to expand a bit and tell what you do to make sure you don’t run out of it. Or tell a story about how much you didn’t like it when you did run out of this thing.

Maybe you will write about one thing. Perhaps you will write about many.

Different things are important to different people. Noticing what you don’t want to disappear from your life can help give you direction. It can also help you better understand yourself, your situation, and your motivations.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. When you are satisfied with the page, give it a title and write the date on it, too.

Here is an example of what someone could write.

You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in, or take a photo of it and upload the image.

Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.