Everywhere I Look, I See Stories.

I absolutely LOVE the feeling of the beginning of a good story. I don't just mean when I'm reading a book. I mean in life, when I meet someone or see something out of the ordinary that feels like the beginning of a wonderful story. It gives me chills. It happens really often.

There's this one walk I like to take where I pass a number of big rambling, mysterious houses. They are mysterious because I never see any people outside and I have no idea who lives there and what they do all day. One of the houses has lots of windows and the curtains are nearly always drawn, except in one window at the very top of the house, and the yard is full of perfectly spherical shrubs. I cannot even tell you how fascinated I am by this. I love it! Stories fill my mind when I walk past, and I've written some of them down. I call that house "The Circle House" because of the shrubs. There's another house that is really huge and sort of looks like a castle. Over and over again I see three big black crows in the yard. Why? I don't know, but I find it wonderfully fascinating. I like to imagine that the crows are actually the people who used to live in the house, and they're wondering when in the world will someone—ANYONE—realize they've been turned into crows!? Wouldn't that make a great story? And I've noticed that bats fly circles in the air above this one house high up on a hill when it's getting dark outside. That is totally like a story!

I think that looking for, or at least being open to, the beginning or the unfolding of stories can make life more beautiful. It transforms the mundane, and it helps me to regard certain moments in my own life story with curiosity—with a sense of wonder regarding what might be going on underneath. I think that sense of wonder and curiosity is intertwined with faith—the idea that something really is going on underneath. There really is a story. That idea is powerful. It fights against fear and it grows courage the way that seeds grow flowers.

~ Amy