Cracking the Code is Not as Important as What You Have to Contribute

Telling your story is hard enough without attempting to craft the bestseller, the guaranteed hit, the words that go viral and amaze the world.

When you lift up your eyes, you may discover an unexpected story, more true and lyrical than anything you’ve ever written before.

Wow. There is absolutely nothing better.

Enjoy the words that are so beautiful that you cannot believe you wrote them. Yeah. Read them again, just to make sure you get the full effect of glorious prose. Share them, shout them, spread them far and wide.

On the other hand, your story may turn out to be absolute dreck, shockingly bad and shameless derivative.

This, too, is terrific.

You took a risk, tried something new, and now you know not to do that again — or at least not exactly the way that you did it this time. No matter how awful it may be, there is usually something there, some sparkling little bit of something that you can use again. Go on, take a look. It’s there — or at least the shadowed trace of something you might be able to work into something good.

Countless loud pundits and experts proclaim you are in dire and desperate need of what they are selling. Their solutions, their failsafe methods, their hard-won wisdom gained hacking their way through the desert or sitting on a park bench for several years will grant you enlightenment and genius story.

Listen to your own still, small voice within your heart. Coax out the awkward, stumbling misshapen bits that keep running through your mind.

If there is one and it is crack-able, you’re not playing anywhere near large enough and nowhere near as wild and free and magnificent as you are capable of being.

My dog is ailing. He’s had a good, long, joyous run, so it’s a natural end time.

That doesn’t make it any easier to bear. I cannot imagine a day without him. But I’m will be living them soon for the rest of my life.

What has helped is the support of friends, family, and bloggers. I have learned more practical information and gained more perspective from the stories of others than I ever dreamed possible. People have shared their own stories and discoveries. This loving grief can enlarge my heart to encompass it and the joy to come.

I take in all this kind wisdom with gratitude and amazement at such powerful generosity.

I thought reading and writing blogs was mind-expanding and thought-provoking, offering fascinating perspectives from views I would never have otherwise seen.

And the poetry and the short stories?

Soul, mind, and heart nourishing. I have come to rejoice in a playground so rich with amazing verse and intelligent, well-wrought stories.

I never expected that.

But here it is. I accept it with open hands and a singing heart.

There is no algorithm for this, no code breaking super hero manuever.

Nope.

It’s just you and me and him and her and all of us banging along, doing our best to tell our best stories as best that we can do.

So, let’s do that. Leave the clever and the smart and the life hacks and all that loud blather to those who cherish it.

For me? For so many of us?

I’m here and we’re all of us here for the stories that only we can tell.

Related posts:

When I look back at my life, I can see a shift in collective consciousness. When I was a teenager, getting educated and earning a salary was the goal given to me like most of the other youngsters of…

We all would like to live a healthy lifestyle during university but, truth be told, it is a lot easier said than done. But what if it wasn’t? What most people find hard about living a healthy…

The original product idea, the Bike Locking Helmet Strap, will be evaluated via a method called SCAMPER. Multiple variations and ideas with be explored and noted in hopes of improving the original…