{Life} Creating & Living Your Story

I just completed reading the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, as part of an online book club (comprised mostly of photographers). It was good...so good I devoured it in two days. If you know me...you know I love a good non-fiction book and you also know I've always wanted to be part of a book club (in fact I had one for a short while with my teacher friends that was awesome...but short lived. As it turns out, not everyone loves to read as much as I). Here is the book description to give you a little peek...

After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller's life stalled. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwilling to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even questioning the meaning of life. But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning. 

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller's rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Donald Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into meaningful narrative. 

Miller goes from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to fearful encounters with love, from wasting his money to founding a nonprofit with a passionate cause. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller shows us how to get a second chance at life the first time around. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a rare celebration of the beauty of life.

"A rare celebration of the beauty of life"....I LOVE THAT! This book has me nostalgic for a time when I lived my life and wasn't driven by obligations and responsibilities. A time when I could decide that hey I'm gonna go to Spain for six months and learn Spanish and see Europe while I'm at. Or a time when I would lay poolside for hours on end reading..only to get up to take a dip in the pool to cool off. I want my life to be stitched together by sunsets and meaningful conversations and laughter and purpose. I do not want the days to pass, one blending into the other, and unable to remember one from the next.

I guess there has always been this dreamer side of me...a side that just kinda wants to escape it all. I am part ambitious, motivated, & hard working...and the other part of me lives in the clouds dreaming about the perfect vacation or even the perfect moment. I daydream about being on the water in a boat...or in a convertible driving down the coast. The wind is blowing my air...the sun is warming my skin...and music is drowning out all the noise, inside & out. From the time I was a child the soundtrack to that moment has been 'Sailing'....I envisioned it as a child long before I ever lived it. I've lived that moment many times in reality and it comes back to me frequently when I have an intense desire to be at peace & free again. Even before I knew all the possibilities of life, I was dreaming about them. I guess you could say it has been my coping mechanism. I pulled that song up today on Spotify (my most recent obsession) and read the lyrics (which I've never done before). How could I love that song so much as a child...long before I realized the longings of my heart...and could identify with it so well at such a young age? It so resonates with me...

Well, it's not far down to paradise, at least it's not for me

And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility

Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

Believe me

It's not far to never-never land, no reason to pretend

And if the wind is right you can find the joy of innocence again

Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

Believe me 

Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be

Just a dream and the wind to carry me

And soon I will be free 

Fantasy, it gets the best of me

When I'm sailing

All caught up in the reverie, every word is a symphony

Won't you believe me? 

Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be

Just a dream and the wind to carry me

And soon I will be free 

Well it's not far back to sanity, at least it's not for me

And if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity

Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

Believe me 

Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be

Just a dream and the wind to carry me

and soon I will be free

There is just a part of me...that no matter what...how busy or crazy or frantic I may be...I need those moments. I have learned that nature and music and relationships are just woven into the fabric of who I am. I need them. I want them. I want to live them. I want to be a walking advertisement for living life in the moment (instead of wanting to escape it). Not yesterday, or tomorrow, & definitely not 'some day' (for that day may never come). Am I? At times, yes. And other times, not so much...definitely not so much. I am tangled up in deadlines and chores and guilt (for every time I tend to something when I feel like something else is lacking). It is a life of tug & pull...compromise...and sacrifice. But this is my life. I'm learning to navigate these waters...it's far more difficult than I had ever imagined. But as I learned from this book....all great stories involve conflict. This is one of my favorite quotes from the book....

"I didn't want to embrace conflict, I wanted it to be an easy story. But nobody really remembers easy stories. Characters have to face their greatest fears with courage. That's what makes a story good."

"...we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller."

And so when everything is said and done, what is my story? How do I want to be remembered? What is the story that I want to leave behind? These are all great questions...but unanswered. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of my story. I believe good things are to come. And I will not wait for them to happen...I will create them. I will write my story. And my hope...is that I will leave some sort of legacy. A legacy that extends beyond my personal desires...but one that will help & inspire others. What do you want your story to be?

"Once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time."

{Book vs. Nook} A review

Well, I'm the proud owner of an e-Reader, the Nook. If you're not familiar with the Nook, it is the Barnes & Noble version of the Kindle. I had always wanted a Kindle but ultimately decided on the Nook because it had a color touch screen, expandable memory, and you could borrow/lend books from other members. I can't compare personally if the Nook is better/worse than the Kindle...so I can only share my personal experience.

The introduction of iTunes and OnDemand are super alluring because your desires are available at the touch of a button. Well, it's the same for eReaders. When you hear of a book selection, you can instantly download the book to your reader (which can be a bit addicting, and impulsive). It's basically the iPod of reading. I love that! As for the reading experience, I like it. A few complaints are the fact that the page turning is a bit slow, because the page turns negative before returning to postive (which I didn't notice so much until my friend Cora brought it to my attention, and now I can't get past it). I love that the main screen is touch screen, but I wish the actual reading pages were touch screen too. I became super accostomed to a full touch screen from reading on my iPhone prior to the Nook, I was able to swipe the page turns and touch and highlight key quotes. It's not easy to highlight on a Nook.

 

Ultimately my goal in purchasing a Nook was to increase my reading. Which it has! It's always with me (at less than weight and space of a real book). And if I'm not in the mood of my current book selection, I can easily pick up another novel from my digital library.

Now having said all that, I love real books! My bookshelves are filled in my home with beautfiul books. With beautiful covers. And worn pages. I appreciate the art of reading from paper pages and turning the corners to earmark favorites. Reading from my Nook is out of convenience and expense. For example, I can download a new release for $9.99 versus the $20-30 price tag of a new release in hard cover. In the end, does it really matter? I'm reading and I haven't done that it almost two years since getting pregnant and having little Brookie Brooks. I lost sight of a hobby that makes me happy, inspries me, and the Nook invites me to read.

 

Good Reads

Well, I'm back from another European adventure. I have tons to report and many pictures to post. But first, I wanted to report that I read three books during my travels. I don't think I read three books all of last year. Life becomes so busy and sometimes you forget how much you enjoy the simple pleasures in life...like a good book. I read The Sunflower, Nineteen Minutes, & The Glass Castle while traveling by plane, buses, and trains. I especially loved The Sunflower for it's love story and the Peruvian adventures (that were reminiscent of my trip two years ago).