...when I was on automatic pilot.

I try to remind myself daily that I am an alive and functioning being. If I don't, I begin to wonder if I'm on automatic pilot. A robot. To really be productive, I have to be thinking. Aware of my existence. If not, I'd be too much like a dementia patient. So, I have a note posted on my refrigerator door. To remind myself that I'm alive and conscious. And often, when I'm out walking, I reassure myself that I am alive. And that I'm thinking. And sometimes, I take a break from walking and come in and write something like this. I've gone through stretches of weeks when I haven't stopped to actually reflect on being alive and conscious. Oh, I'm aware that I lived during that period. And I remember much of what happened. But I suspect we humans forget far more than we remember. And what we remember may be distorted recollections because we didn't remember it too well. That's one nice thing about being a writer. I can always look up what I was thinking yesterday or last week or last month. I have a record of it. However, I do find things I wrote 40 or 50 years ago and I don't remember writing it. Could be it was during a period when I was on automatic pilot. --Jim Broede