… What do all these things have in common? Other than being the stuff of heart-thumping dreams (for those so inclined) when it comes to the ol’ ‘found poem’ trope, they are each quite inexplicably listed down the side of my google document as suggestions of ‘related topics’ to research. I have no idea why they’re there (each being followed by a tantalising, italicised preview paragraph of an encyclopaedic entry; it’s kinda cool, actually), other than that each of these phrases does appear in my manuscript, and has seemingly, as such, been plucked quite at random into a list of points for recommended consideration (as though I might not have considered them before plopping them into my novel).

Another, related document of mine – the one in which I keep track of events (this is the closest thing I have in terms of plotting, and it’s entirely retrospective, so not actual plotting at all), includes in its side-bar the words ‘violet’, ‘feather’ and ‘Teotihuacan’, which it suggests I check the spelling of (though I assure it I am correct).

… Anyway, let those seven trumpets sound, let my human head not utterly freak out, and let atmospheric instability diffuse please-God-not-too-slowly into something cohesive, positive and wondrous, as I have now finished the first draft of my novel. Hallelujah! I finished it on Sunday (it’s now Tuesday) and spent yesterday feeling a bit odd, but having a lot of fun, i.e. I went on a shopping spree for jewellery and tea. Peach, Passionfruit, Egyptian Mint, Lavender & Blood Orange (and others) aside (I highly recommend Cardews in Oxford’s Covered Market if you happen to feel like a waltz into heaven on an afternoon), I also marked the occasion with a little triptych of pieces I’d had my eye on for a little while, ignoring the voices in my head that said I was being spoilt and indulgent, to the extent that the jeweller remarked that I seemed very happy and ‘glowing’ in the shop, dotting from glass case to glass case. Ha!

Well, jewellery and I have a bit of an understanding, which I allow to take over on such rare occasions as these: it calls me; I fail to resist – especially in the face of certain stones and settings which threaten to ‘complete me’ (school girl sigh). Included in this merry, heady ridiculousness was a ring made of raw prehnite. It’s a very delicate blue-green colour which basically looks like I have a crystal clear pond on my finger, drifting between hues in the light. I adore it.

Then, this morning, I woke up having had a very intense and vivid dream absolutely ridden with dream-symbol cliché – the kind that has you rolling your eyes at the brilliant, complex-yet-primary-school-level-simple beacon of the unconscious, and has you thinking you ought to write it down and hey, maybe learn something about what’s going on. I hadn’t had such a strong (and obviously symbolic) dream narrative for about eighteen months. After waking up in a bit of a daze, I then (quite unrelatedly, but immediately afterwards) googled the precious stones of the jewellery I had bought yesterday to find out more about them, only to find that prehnite is traditionally and widely regarded as useful in boosting prophecy, dream recall and pre-cognition.

And this, friends, is why I don’t need drugs. I just need to put ponds on my fingers.