There is much discussion in cities with older downtown areas, such as Omaha, about restoration or demolition of the old, beautiful building. Logic tells us those old buildings have been vacant for twenty years or so. The utilities have been long turned off. Sentiment tells us our Grandpa Louie had a textile business here, our Aunt Susie had a bakery here, Dad’s cousin had a hardware store there. Restoration is wonderful, but at what price? Plumbing and electrical issues must be brought up to current code in refurbished properties. Safety issues abound, accomodations for handicapped folks is the law now. Sometimes, the only solution is to demo it and start new. The bricks can be cleaned and reused. They’ll go well on a garden walk in your yard. The memory will still be there. In your heart and mind.
That said, those of us who want better lives, better conditions, better feelings about ourselves, we must also decide; build on what you have, or tear down all the old messages, training, feelings, negative input, inability to put ourselves first. It’s a matter of undoing all the things which have held us back all these years. It’s uncomfortable. It’s a big change. You must resolve those feelings to succeed at changing what’s not comfortable in your life. If you want to write, you must change time wasting procrastination into solid, productive work. It’s up to you. It’s hard. Dad always told us the “right thing is always the hard thing to do”.
A day or so ago, I was inspired by my daily meditation and wrote about it in the blog from April 15, 2021, here. A bit later, I noticed something I wrote last summer was shared on someone else’s blog/Flip (probably something new to learn!) and guess what I saw? April 15, 2020; a whole different perspective on the same reading. I was blown away!
Last year, I was getting ready to work with a book coach. I did that for several months and decided the story I had up to over 50K words wasn’t the story I could tell. It was too long. Too many characters. I hope to revisit that novel again and make a series out of it. Tell the story the walls of the house can tell, but do it in a chronological order. The characters may all be in the story. It’s about a family with much dysfunction, codependency, and alcoholism. I believe I can salvage the idea of “These Walls DO Talk”.
However, now I’m many chapters into a cleaner way to tell Katie’s story. It’s about her life from age 18 to maybe 45. It’s much better writing. I hoped to finish the “These Walls DO Talk,” novel last year. Publish in September. I’m humbled by what I had to do differently. That’s why the coach was such a good idea. Sam Tyler has a business coaching. She also writes herself. Check out her website, too!
And here I am, a year later, writing a children’s book, and getting ready to put the artwork of Cartney McGuigan into the draft copy and edit my words down. Where Cartney can show the story with her drawings, I will edit out the words. It’s pretty different from where I thought I’d be last year. It’s a lot of work, yes, and it’s lots of learning to keep me living and improving life.
Let’s see each other again tomorrow, ok? I appreciate your time today and hope you have something fun happen this afternoon. I’m not going to Gavin’s game today, my body just aches too much already to be in the damp, chilly weather. I hate missing it, but I’ll pay all week if I go. Go Gavin! Win that double-header!
Kathy Raabe 