What if you wrote the story of your life? Would you tell of all the challenges you faced? Would you tell about the times you stood alone for what was right and didn’t back down? Would you tell of how love came into your life? Would you tell of dreams chased, captured or lost? Our lives are our stories and we are the central character of our stories. Here’s hoping your story is a heroic adventure, one of which you and those who know you can be proud.
story
Today’s Good Word ~ Narrative
Our lives are our narrative. Each moment adds a bit to our life’s story. Our narrative is not preprogrammed into us. We can change our narrative. It’s not easy to change a narrative, there are social constraints, family constraints. If we have the courage to examine our lives, we can decide if the life we are living is telling the narrative we want it to tell. If it isn’t, the moment is now to write the first paragraph to the first page of the rest of your life.
Something to Think About
Older, retired folks have a tendency to tell stories of their youth, successes from work, and adventures they took. They tell the same story as often as one listens to it. I’ve found their stories enlightening and entertaining. They are the stuff of life. They are one person’s narrative that their life was meaningful. If you have an opportunity to listen to an elder’s stories, take advantage of it. Listening connects us to the story teller, and the story teller’s story connects us to the story teller’s journey.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Dicken’s Opening Paragraph to A Tale of Two Cities
Opening Paragraph from Dicken’s, A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Graham Greene’s Opening Paragraph in “Brighton’s Rock”
Opening Paragraph from Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock
Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. With his inky fingers and his bitten nails, his manner cynical and nervous, anybody could tell he didn’t belong – belong to the early summer sun, the cool Whitsun wind off the sea, the holiday crowd. They came in by train from Victoria every five minutes, rocked down Queen’s Road standing on the tops of the little local trams, stepped off in bewildered multitudes into fresh and glittering air: the new silver paint sparkled on the piers, the cream houses ran away into the west like a pale Victorian water-colour; a race in miniature motors, a band playing, flower gardens in bloom below the front, an aeroplane advertising something for the health in pale vanishing clouds across the sky.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ The Best Part of Writing
“That is the best part of writing: finding the hidden treasures, giving sparkle to worn out events, invigorating the tired soul with imagination, creating some kind of truth with many lies.”
🤗 A Better Life ~ Be Patient & Kind to Yourself
Each time we suffer a deep loss, it’s likely we’ll also experience the five stages of death and dying. Being patient and kind with ourselves and trusting things will eventually work out works. It’s a place where friends and family are essential.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ What Writers Influence Your Style?
“As for the writers who have influenced me they are many. Hemingway, Chandler, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, William Goldman, Flannery O’Conner, Carson McCullers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so many others. As a kid Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard.”
💡 Something to Think About
You are unique. There is no one like you. You have a story and a song to share with others. Don’t hold back, share it.
💡 Something to Think About
As a kid, I never realized we were poor. I grew up in a 4 room cold water flat. At times, I thought the train was coming through the bedroom. My parents never complained. We ate simple. Today, I see these items on Italian bistro menus and laugh at the price. My parents made sure my brother and I didn’t hang out with the wrong crowd (the consequences would have been devastating to us). We picked blueberries in the swamps, grew tomatoes and onions in a garden, and picked button mushrooms in the fall. My parents made a bigger difference for me than any teacher (and I had some good ones). Parenting is a most important role.
