Writing: Life's Laughing Gas

So, I'm at the dentist the other day for my annual cleaning. I've got the gas mask on and I'm drifting out to lala land. If you wonder why I need nitris for a simple cleaning, I will tell you, I absolutely love my dentist, but hate dental work, all of it. My mouth is very sensitive, and I have a very low tolerance for pain.

I love nitris oxide. That slow ease into semi-consciousness. Your mind drifting to places and ideas that it never would otherwise. Forgetting every stress, every problem, every tragedy in your life, if only for an hour.

So as I lay there, drifting, floating, forgetting, I realize that this nitris, this laughing gas, is not unlike writing for me. When I write, I travel outside my body, I dream, I forget, I escape. I feel a kind of peace that can maybe be equated to meditating, sitting down with a drink after a long, hard day at work, or watching your child sleep.

And only when I'm done for the day, and I can't seem to write another word, am I eased back in to life, to its bills, and its phone calls, its conflicts, and all its stresses.

So, there it is, writing is my laughing gas, and as I cannot take dental work without the nitris, I can not take life without the writing.