Synaesthesia

Have you ever had a thought affect you like a feather?

Nonthreatening and unassuming, it dusts against your cheek. So gentle, comforting, but curious at the same time. You laugh at it while you watch it play. You allow it because it seems curious but insignificant. The feather plays across your nose and slowly moves across your face.

It leaves your skin. An echo of the past.

You get busy, your existential clothing is thick and guarding you from the world, numbing your body from whatever to protect you in the way you need. You forget about the feather. Many colours and lights come by, many experiences, many distractions. It occasionally dusts past your shoulder unobtrusively, comforting you in almost a subconscious way, just bringing back enough to calibrate you.

You stay busy. Work, family, friends, whatever. You forget about the feather as life goes on. It has become an echo. A dust of an impact like a ray of sunset light that warms you through moving leaves of trees. Such an obvious feeling on your body if you look, but completely lost if you are not paying attention.

You get home, remove the thick layer of clothing and you give yourself a minute of silence. Gently the feather lands on your shoulder-blade just below your neck and slowly makes its way towards your hips. The thought has returned. It gives you goose-bumps, running chills down your body.

Now you are paying attention, perhaps the thought has gone deep into you or made you go deep into yourself, perhaps it has made you question something. It has gained control, but you didn’t see it coming. You’re paying attention now.

Have you ever had a thought affect you like a feather?