The Cocktail Party in Your Head

When your brain feels crowded, focus on the wisest voice

Bare oak branches by the Mississippi River in January, by the author, Emily P.G. Erickson

One Sunday afternoon, while walking along the river path near where I live in Saint Paul, I wandered off the pavement to a clearing where the bluffs swing out over the Mississippi. I watched the wind push a pocket of snow from its perch in an oak to the cold ground below. During its ethereal descent through a slant…