Once Upon A Time…

“Once upon a time…” that’s how it begins, right? Those four familiar words that mean a great story is about to begin. What it will entail; we know not. What characters will we meet; yep, no idea. Where it will be set and where it will take us; nope, we don’t know that either. What we do know is that it is the starting block for a journey through time, just as it states. So I’d like to change one of those words if I may. Now don’t panic, I just mean for a moment. Just for this moment right here together, as you read this, I would like to change the word “a” for “my.” I’ll let that sink in because I know you are now saying it over in your head, “Once upon my time…” sounds weird, right? But hey, we all know anything different to the so-called norm is always hard to process at first. Remember back when people first said “Google it” instead of “look it up” or when you first heard someone say “lit” and you thought “wait, what?!” Yeah, yeah good times. Anyways, I digress. Back to our storytelling; back to “once upon my time….”

The thing is, we are all living our own story, right? – Yes, that is where I was going with this. And yet, how often do we truly embrace our own story? The characters, the settings, the storyline, the plot twists. Why is it so much easier to focus on other people’s stories? It’s like we literally prefer reading over other people’s shoulders, with our own still in hand. And it’s sad how dissatisfied we can be with our story, often looking back and overanalyzing previous chapters or fearing the chapters to come. But hey, the story goes on regardless, right? The pages keep turning with or without us like they are being controlled by some mystical force. Each day pages take on new words with new meanings; new characters to teach us new lessons, and new experiences leading to new character depths. And when you think about it everything that has come before this moment has made us the person we are today: the good parts and the bad parts. It is all part of our story; part of our character development. Remember that we cannot appreciate those good parts of the story without having the contrast of the tougher parts.

Here is my question: How can we make sure that we love every chapter, read every page and respect every aspect? Oh and for the record, I have the attention span of a flea, so more often than not I literally want to put my book down and walk away, especially when things get tough. I am, therefore, asking myself this as much as I am asking you. Okay, enough of this. I challenge us all to take the time to own our life and love our story – or should it be own our story and love our life? Either way, let’s do this.

The end.