Writing Another Story

She’s just an ordinary girl who had an ordinary day, but she’s slightly disgusted with humanity and specifically with the specimen called male. Self-centered insensitive dogs, all of them.

She’s just an ordinary girl who’s at an ordinary country dance, standing in the middle of the floor, hoping someone will ask her to dance.

No one’s walking her way. Oh. She looks for a place to sit. That was awkward.

Then you appear. Tall and good-looking, sweet and sincere.

“Will you dance with me?”

At those words a smile breaks out on that ordinary girl’s face.

“I’d love to!”

Then you say the magic words… “thank you.

She replies, “thank you,” and she is thanking you for much more than the dance.
She is thanking you for not expecting her to be as gorgeous as your girlfriend, for being kind to her even though she knows she’s not your type.

She is thanking you for doing her a favor, while making her feel like she is the one that has done you the favor.

She is thanking you for restoring her belief in mankind, for being one of that endangered species that are so very few and hard to find.

To every one who is a member of that endangered species, thank you. You are appreciated more than you may ever know. Viva la gentleman!

Okay, so it started out with a little seed of an idea – “Wouldn’t it be cool to write a novel in verse form?” For a while it didn’t go much further than that.

But then, Sara and I decided that we wanted to make it more than just an idea.  And so, we have embarked on the challenge of writing 25,000 words of verse this month! That’s a little more than 800 words a day.  It’s our very own Big, Scary Adventure.  It’s a blast!

If anybody out there reading this wants to join in, by all means do so!

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” -Robert Kennedy

I love this quote, which I got from one of my daily quote emails. I have another one from Soren Kierkegaard: “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose one’s self.” And as my daddy says his daddy said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Do you want to live? Then dare to do so! Jump outside of your comfort zones, your safety lines, your boundaries. Tackle the world head on. Don’t be afraid of failure, of wounded pride. Go fly that kite – it may take ten tries to get in the air, but that tenth time of soaring is definitely worth the first nine thuds.

Don’t just stand there, shivering in your safe corner, afraid to live. You will regret it, so leap into life! You might find embarrassment, heartbreak, confusion, even failure. But it will be all worth it, because living is a beautiful thing that you don’t want to miss out on. If you watch closely, you might even find a few moments of euphoric happiness.

So forget about the known, the secure, the safe. Find the spot on the map that says “here there be dragons” – and go there!

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of shore for a very long time.” -Andre Gide