There is a moment from August 2013 that reminds me of a scene from Walter Mitty. A moment when I thought about taking a picture or two to memorialize things but I didn’t.
Sometimes I don’t take that shot.
Sometimes I don’t let myself step out of the moment to capture it because I don’t know if I can step back into it and then it really is gone.
So I keep that moment in my head and burn it into memory so that I can pull it back up when I want to. Gotten pretty good at it but I can’t say I can describe it in a way that you can follow…unless you were there.
And even then I don’t know if you’ll bring it up and think of it the same way I do. Could be because the meaning and importance is different or maybe you’re focused elsewhere.
People are infinitely interesting and infinitely difficult intermixed with a million different things that make them fascinating and sometimes…irritating.
What Story Will You Write?
The phone rings and the voice on the other end tells me there is a chance they might move to Dallas and asks me a series of questions.
We go back and forth for a bit while I spell out my not being an expert on DFW but someone who knows a little bit about it and quite a bit about moving.
“I have had to reinvent myself a few times but you already know that. You even know some of the bigger secrets and reasons why some people think I have made some of these moves.
They’re all separate and intertwined. Each could stand on their own as reason enough but that is me. You have to ask yourself what story will you write and is it the one you want to.”
That is tied into the sometimes I don’t message from above.
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My daughter was a hell of a soccer player. She was far faster than people expected and I loved watching her turn the jets on and run other girls down.
The look of determination to get there and the expression when she caught them from behind was everything. Sometimes I wanted to capture it on film so that I could show her but I rarely tried because I couldn’t do both.
I hated missing the moment so I had to capture it in my mind’s eye.
Another parent asked me to explain why I enjoyed the games and shlepping all over. The answer was I didn’t always like it.
Who wants to wake up ridiculously early on the weekend and go stand on the sidelines, sometimes with other parents who were poster children for what not to grow up to be.
It was because of the love my baby girl had for it and those moments where I could see pure joy on her face. It is the expression every good mother and father want to see on their kid’s face.
There is nothing like it and you never tire of it.
If You Have The Courage
Stephen King’s book on writing is a favorite and one that I read again every few years because I always find some nugget of wisdom.
I paraphrased one of his quotes in that subhead. It is about writing but you can adapt it to life in general. It jumped out at me because I noticed the traffic in a few places has picked up again.
Not sure any of the long term readers are checking things out often because the frequency isn’t what it once was but someone is interested.
So it has me thinking about some more updates and considering a few other moves. King is on to something.
“you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
