Writing our Next Chapter…

I love reading! I’ll read almost anything, Historical fiction, non fiction, satire,fantasy, you get the idea, literature is my friend. In my mind, there’s nothing more delightful than being completely enveloped in a story and just relishing in each chapter, wishing all along that the chapter I’m in or the book itself would never end. It’s like saying goodbye to a cherished friend when I finish a particularly engrossing book. I was thinking about this today as I was discussing with a friend , all the transitions I am currently facing. She said something very apropos , ” It must be so hard for you right now when your facing so many “transitions” and so many exciting, new beginnings are awaiting you in Panama”. This made me ponder how a chapter must be complete before the next chapter can begin. Isn’t that just what a Chapter is about? It’s a transition , a place in the story where a new point of view begins or a different sequence of events begins. Such a true statement , and an analogy that is close to my heart. As an avid lover of all things literature, drawing a parallel to a difficult, sad or challenging event in my life with my love of books really speaks to me.

A new chapter is not an ending to the story, not at all, it’s a point in the story line where a different direction may begin or a different narrator begins a different perspective . All the same characters remain a part of the story, the next chapter is what I almost always look forward to experiencing. Depending upon the book, sometimes I may dread or fear what direction the storyline may take on in the next chapter. But dread or fear never stop me from continuing on to see what the next chapter will bring. I’m often pleasantly surprised by a turn of events or by the introduction of a new character into the storyline. The story just gets better and better as more complexities are layered into the narrative. A good story must do just that, it must twist and turn and cause you to follow the story with baited breath .

Aren’t we all the authors of our own story? Yes, there are plenty of experiences that present themselves to us which may seem as though we would be self destructive to have written that into our own story on purpose! But I think it’s ‘how’ we decide to travel through those parts of the story and ‘how’ or ‘if’ we decide to carry the results of those more complicated life experiences along the path that is our story. There are some juicy parts to the story that only we can decide where it will take us. There are those who choose to believe that they are the victims of their life, that they have been dealt a bad hand, I say “Peshaw!” Buck up! Everybody gets to experience difficulty of some sort during their lifetime, It’s the fire of life that we must walk through to find our strength and our power. I’m taking the reigns of my story. I’m creating the next chapter and it’s building on the chapters that Ive already been through. It is a thrilling story with suspense and humor a story that is unpredictable and I’m on the edge of my seat as the suspense is building and the story is getting more thrilling to me as time is passing.

Don’t we all look forward to the next chapter? Transitional life moments are often fraught with powerful emotions. I’m in the midst of a new chapter myself. As you can see , from this post, It’s on my mind a lot. Transitional times are not unusual but having the opportunity to actually plan it and make it happen is not always the case. Many changes in life are just natural life transitions like becoming an adult, living on your own for the first time, getting married, having a child, starting a career, then your child grows up, you become an empty nester, maybe you decide its time to retire. These new chapters are somewhat predictable , at least they are events that you expect. They are events that most folks have expectations of experiencing at some point in time. Scott and I have chosen to write a storyline that is not so predictable. Ours is a road less traveled. Many have gone before us and made a life for themselves abroad, created a completely new storyline. This is our “Next Chapter”. Instead of allowing the chapters to unfold in a traditional path, we’re customizing the next chapter to appeal to our sense of adventure and our desire to experience something totally different and unpredictable. Oh, we have a plan but that plan is simply a ‘rough draft’ of the story. We don’t know exactly what twists and turns it may take and we may find aspects of our adventure will occasionally need to be edited or re-written in places. That’s the way it goes in life, and we are prepared to expect the unexpected. Expecting the ‘expected’ sounds , oh sooooo boring after all. What genre is ‘your’ story? Ours is part suspense, a bit of a thriller, often a comedy, but mostly a mystery. We don’t know all the answers or what turns may come next , and the suspense keeps us on the edge of our seat!

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