A friend send me this pic of a story and asked if I'd written it. It's in our writing group's Wee Free Read, and it's a story about being wakened up far to early.
Coincidentally, the same wee rascal who did the waking was sitting next to his tired old Papa when the message arrived.
"You are so lucky!" she wrote.
She was right. And that was an essential part of writing the story.
Appreciation is at the heart of most of my writing. Not all... but, most.
Like the story I shared with the writing group yesterday. It involved two "socially unacceptable" characters, one of whom I thought was really rude. But, when I stopped to wonder a minute, I realised that they were coping with a lot in their own way and that, actually, I was witnessing (a different sort) of love in action.
I could have settled for responding in kind - and that would have been an unhappier sort of story.
Likewise, when Aidan woke me up at ridiculous o'clock, after a disturbed night, I could have been a grumpy Papa, which would surely only have made things worse. Or I could take a moment to think what a beautiful work of art he is and how lucky we are to have him in our lives. At any time.
When I first started doing stories like this for the Francis Gay page, I used to wonder, am I just seeing the world through the proverbial rose-tinted glasses? Because it seemed I was finding beauty in almost everything.
The other option, of course, is that there actually is beauty - and stories - in everything. If we look for it.
And, even if I am somehow deluding myself, well...
There is no independent arbitor in this life who can say the optimist is right in seeing a beautiful world and the pessimist is wrong in seeing an ugly one. Or vise versa.
And lacking that independent authority, it surely comes down to the sort of world you choose to see.
You will find what you are looking for. "Seek ye, and you will find".
Most will walk a middle path, seeing a little of this and a little of that. But, if you make a choice, you will find beauty (or the other thing) everywhere.
It took me a while to get there, but I found myself looking for the good story. And even if I never sold another Francis Gay again, I can't imagine why I would ever look for anything else. Even at 6.15 in the morning.
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