I can feel my heart beating too fast. My breath feels shallow. My body, jittery.

It's not caffeine. There's no threat here in the kitchen. It's nothing at all.

Still, the next phone call I take, I walk with it. There's something about walking that drains the barely-perceptible unease that pervades my body. It's as if with each step something falls away. I miss this outer movement that creates inner space.

After my walk, after my call, I sit and just think. What do I really need?

Swaths of time. Time to go deep. Time to stop surfing (oh, I do love to Internet surf, and find great inspiration in it).

I need a book. Something more than a 500-word screen article. Something to hold in my hands, with a cup of tea beside me. So I do it.

In the green wing-back chair, I settle with a stack of books near my feet. I read one half-way through—a book on Branding. My notebook is filling with notes. I drink Red tea and consider my own personal brand. Not my writing and my logos and online images and posts. Just my self. The Brand that is Laura.

I get up and go to my email, write an apology to a friend. An apology for being so outside-my-personal-brand lately. I thank her for her patience with me, then I close up the laptop and return to the comfort of my chair, my books, my pen.

It carries over into my morning today. Before anything, I sit down and study French, drink my green jasmine tea, plan my week, my day. I even take time to smile to no one at all. Just sit and smile in the dining room. This is me. It feels happy.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...