Shh…
Listen …
Can you hear it?
Probably not. But it’s happening. Right now, all over the world, there are people making stories. They have “other jobs,” many of them – moms and dads, teachers and salesmen, and plenty of other obligations which occupy their day. But, for some inexplicable, beautiful reason, the beauty of a story untold has whispered to them, catching them in its thrall, and they’re up late, or up early, or both, following the golden thread of the narrative wherever it takes them.
They’re making stories. For us. For me!
I can think of a friend in the mid-South, wrestling a story of physics and God into concrete form. Another in western Canada, with picture books in his brain, another on the tip of Washington fighting for his time to write against a host of other obligations. Another in a house overlooking the Erie Canal in western New York. Another in a stone house in Pennsylvania, or a little cabin in the mountains. And on, and on, and on…
Why?
There are a lot of answers. Some of them sound weird, honestly. They make stories because they believe in the power of truth, beauty, and goodness, to captivate us. They make stories because they were called awake at night with a haunting image in their mind, or a phrase they can’t shake, but have to record, and it leads them to another phrase, and soon, a story is birthed.
Frankly, they make stories because they can’t imagine a life where they don’t make stories.
And here’s the point:
It’s a great comfort to me in this world of uncertainty, often fraught with chaos and disorder that all over the world, people are working to make stories, to wrestle the chaos into order, fight back their own personal voices and demons of uncertainty and vulnerability, and bring their stories into the world, so that one day, I might enjoy them.
For us. For me!
What a relief that there are stories being birthed, nurtured, and loved, and soon they’ll come to me, to my family, to enjoy.
So to those who make the stories, or to those who are thinking about making a story:
Courage, dear heart. Keep at it. We love you. You’re beautiful and your work matters. And we’re waiting to see what you can make.
