July 5-11, 2009
1. These photos and the stories being told by my friend Becky, whose family is making a life in South Africa. I am equally proud and envious, as she is living out one of the dreams that has lingered in the corners of my mind for a decade now. These sunsets are just one reason.
source::The Fudge Five
2. Cereal Box Storage Bins. The instructions, which feature a bit of sewing, terrify me but I love love love the idea of using what you have to create something beautiful, functional and fun!
3. The Uniform Project. That one woman wore the exact same dress every single day for one year is astounding. That she made it look fresh each and every time is truly inspired. And it’s all for an extremely important cause. This certainly has my mind whirring!
4. The Power of Story, Part One. Angie Lucas, of Yeah, Write, had an encounter with a neighbor that proves how important our personal stories are and that it’s never too late to begin writing them down. If you’re not inspired by this man’s efforts, then I would ask you this: “Do your children, grandchildren, family and friends know all the stories of your life? Will they wonder just who you were and what you loved and what influenced you in life when you’re no longer around to tell them?” Everyone has stories to tell. It’s time to start sharing yours.
5. The Power of Story, Part Two, by David Masters (reprinted from Write to Done)
King Shahryar of Persia loves his newlywed wife more than all the world. It is his greatest happiness to meet her every wish, and to treat her with the finest jewels – diamonds, rubies, and sapphires – and beautiful silk dresses.
Shahryar’s Queen, however, is in love with another man. For many years, the Queen and her lover have a secret affair.
When King Shahryar finally discovers his Queen’s infidelity, he is furious. Breaking down and losing his mind, he has the Queen executed. As revenge on his former wife, he decrees that all women are unfaithful.
He soon marries a new bride, but has her executed the next morning, before she has a chance to cheat on him. He marries again, and again executes his new wife the next day. He repeats this pattern until his chief advisor can find no more women for him to marry. The only single woman left in the whole kingdom is the advisor’s own daughter, Scheherazade. Reluctantly, the chief advisor agrees to let her marry the king.
On their wedding night, Scheherazade tells the king a story. At the climax of the story, she stops her storytelling, and refuses to continue. The king is determined to discover the ending to the story. He begs her to finish, but she will not tell the ending.
The next day, the executioner knocks on the king’s door, as has become custom the day after each wedding. The king sends the executioner away. Scheherazade’s execution can wait until tomorrow; he must first hear the end of her story.
That night, Scheherazade finishes her story. The king is satisfied, and will have her executed the following morning. However, while he is plotting Scheherazade’s demise, she begins another story. Again, she stops telling the story at its climax, and refuses to continue. Again, the king holds off her execution so he can hear the ending to her story. And again, that evening, when she finishes the previous story, she starts another.
For 1,001 nights Scheherazade captivates the king in this way, holding his curiosity each night with a new story.
During these years of sharing stories, the King has fallen in love with Scheherazade. He can no longer imagine having her executed. Scheherazade, too, has fallen in love with the King. Together, they live happily ever after, with a reign of justice and truth, always listening carefully to the stories of their subjects.
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” ~ Rudyard Kipling
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This month I’m looking back over the past 10 years of this blog and reposting some of the entries that help chronicle a decade of public writing as well as reflect who I was then and who I (still) am now. A lot has changed, yet a great deal has yet to evolve, and so I am reflecting on these things without regret. Thanks for walking through it with me.
