I was having a relatively simple conversation with my brother at my house when I realized there was a problem. I was trying to bring a word from my brain to my lips and it just wouldn’t come. I pondered, I furrowed my brow trying to push the word closer to my tongue but to no avail. The English language, the language that I love to use so creatively, now evaded me. I struggled to grasp for the word ‘futon’ but it was nowhere to be found in the cavity in my head.
I’ve been stumped before but usually, with a little persistence, the drum in my head begins to move and the words tumble like clothes in a dryer and eventually settle on my tongue. But this time there was no drum, nothing tumbled, nothing settled and I stood there, muted by my exhaustion.
I have been lethargic, to say the least, when I get home from work and can’t find the energy to conjure words from my brain to my fingertips or even to transfer words from a page to my brain. Writing and reading, once two of my favorite pastimes, are evading my realm of consciousness once again.
I am determined to tuck my body into the cocoon of my bed tonight, sleep until mid morning and wake feeling refreshed and ready to absorb words and create once more!
polysyllabic profundities 
To be fair, how often does one really want to summon a futon? 😉
I bet a good night’s rest will set you right.
Thank you for that excellent point….and I hope you’re right. I don’t feel like myself at all right now. 😦
This happens a lot with my family. My mom once took two days to remember the word toaster. When she figured it out, we all got a good laugh. It’s frustrating to say the least.
It sure is….I hope your mom was able to see the humor in it as well!! 🙂
This happens to me on a daily basis. The worst thing I have trouble with is remembering my children’s names.
(for some reason only half of my comment posted so here’s the rest). If I can’t even remember their names how my supposed to come up with anything intelligent to write.
Agreed!! I was quite upset that I couldn’t come up with the stupid word futon!!
That brain exhaustion happens to us all. It’ll pass, my friend. Never fear.
When it happens to others, BTW, I find the results wonderful. Once my dad couldn’t remember “pajamas,” which he ended up calling a “two-legged sleep suit” which, I think is better than the real word.
My son also makes creative substitutions. Once when I was performing a little self-deprecating humor around the breakfast table, he looked at me and said “Don’t you dare underqualidate yourself!” Underqualidate is now in active use around our house.
I’m not sure which I like more – two-legged sleep suit or underqualidate! I may have to borrow those! It actually took a good night’s sleep and an idiot driver to inspire me to try to write something today!!
This happens to me a lot. Sometimes I feel as if I’m losing parts of my mind. I sometimes go through stages where I’ll say things like ‘I need to put that stuff on the edge of the floor that joins the floor to the wall’. Hubby will say, ‘you mean the skirting board?’. Do’h! My memory is shocking xxx
I was shocked how long it took that word to come to me….sigh. At least I had a good night’s sleep last night and I’m ready to try again!! 🙂
Cut yourself some slack. Don’t underestimate the effects of stress on how you think, feel and work. Here’s to some good sleep and happy writing!
It is like when you find yourself standing in front of the fridge or the pantry and you can’t remember what you are looking for. Only it’s worse with words, far worse. I mentioned my problem with this to my doctor right around the time I turned 40. She said it could be depression. Could be exhaustion. Could be having fairly young kids. Could be age. Could be (and probably was) all of the above. It hasn’t stopped all together, but most of the time my stubbornness wins. Most of the time. For the other times, thank God for my dictionary/thesaurus.
Stubbornness is certainly the key!! And the frustration in the process only makes for more blog subjects. 🙂