Enough!

Enough is when it is time to move on to something else.

Enough is a wake-up call to satiety; when the voice in you says enough it is speaking on behalf of you're having taken all you're going to take, eaten all you feel like eating, listening to someone for as long as you can possibly take it and, perhaps, a bit more out of a sense of courtesy or family loyalty or the not-to-be-discounted act of being a friend.

Enough is the awareness that seeps through your being, telling you a story is done, ripened, matured, ready to go out and if they don;t like it, you know better, you will in fact have had enough with them.

Enough is the decision to stop thinking about a thing you have already thought through an infinitude of permutations; it is the moment switch gears, up or down, moving briskly ahead or lapsing with studied leisure into relaxation.

Enough is the time to quit a thing you thought you could never get enough of in favor of a distraction that carries you along, confident it will tell you when it is through with you so that you can return fresh to the thing you thought you could never get enough of.

Enough is a time to stop being distracted by things that lurch out at you like tour guides wanting to direct you to shops and restaurants run by their cousins, time to tell yourself you have procrastinated enough and must realize the thing you want and have some nervousness about is waiting for you and that you have been afraid enough of it so that you no longer worry about failing at it or even worrying that you will be competent in its thrall.

Enough is the time to stop researching and start writing, which is the truest way you will ever have of discovering how much research you needed in the first place. Similarly, enough is time to stop trying to add things to the story that don't want to fit, the literary equivalent of when friends or family tried to fix you up with someone who you already knew did not fit; it is the time to stop falling in love with someone who has no interest in you because after all your efforts and still no result, you will always wonder if your love was returned in a moment of weakness only to be regretted soon after. Enough is also the time when you need to distance yourself from the belief that you have nothing to offer, experiencing the significant distraction of presenting observations, deeds, and companionship to individuals you might not even know. It is quite true that some of these individuals will consider you a busybody or a snoop, possibly even some pervert or degenerate, but these same individuals will think other negative things of you if you do nothing.

Enough is using exclamation marks and underlinings and words written with all capital letters with frugality because in each case once is often more than enough.

Enough is telling the joke only once and, despite gales of laughter from the punch line, not repeating the punch line. Enough is making your thanks resonate the first time, without any need for adding adjectives or adverbs to them.

Enough is also making sure there is a sufficiency of you in a venture of any sort, rather than the mere traces of you. Enough is making enough of an appearance that your departure provokes regret.

It may be true of you that what you write is more than enough, but let it also be said that what you edit is enough to produce the optimal result.

It may be possible to love too much or care too much but let it never be said of you that you don't do either enough.