This afternoon, when I was cleaning out my closet, I found a magnet. The magnet had one word on it.
but
A little word laying beside my black velvet sling back shoes that I have worn only once. I looked up the definition of the word. But can be a conjunction, a preposition, an adverb and a noun. I am thinking of the word but as a conjunction, where it is used to introduce something that contrasts with what has already been said.
I am an unshelled peanut with no nuts inside. I am hollow. I have no value. From the outside I look like all the other peanuts in the bag. Brown, ridged, covered in salt. I am not the same as the other peanuts. I am hollow. I sit in the back of my closet behind the black cashmere coat my cousin gave me. I don’t move my eyes. I am frozen. I hold my breath. No one can see me. I am hollow.
but
I hear King David “For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.”
I breathe.
I am not hollow.
I will put the magnet on the fridge to remind me of the truth. There is a word that can be used as a conjunction to contrast what has already been said or thought. Negative to positive.
but
