As I finalize preparations on Broken Time to send for beta reads and reviews, it occurs to me (once again) that I need to expand out the thematic elements in my writing. The grief over Dad’s loss has moved into the acceptance phase, and it’s time that my writing got off these heavy mortal issues and brought in the more everyday elements of life.
Readers might not realize it, but you’re riding shotgun on the author’s life issues. Our writing reflects our day to day experience, and my goal for now is to reflect my current season of life, starting with short stories and moving into my future novels. I have broken free in a few of my short stories over the summer, and I need to work on doing that more consistently.
One issue that I’m living is expansion. It’s something I’ve discovered in my meditation and restorative yoga this year. Many people asked me “should you be doing that? You are Christian, after all.” Obviously, they were drawing connections to the Hindu aspects of yoga and some meditation, but honestly I don’t see what my religious preferences have to do with my physical and mental health. Christians do meditate, and I’ve got to stretch out these muscles from my weight lifting workout somehow (and those foam rollers are a ‘no’ for me). Honestly, the new perspective opened my eyes to managing my confusion and anxiety in those ‘grief stage’ and ‘post traumatic stress’ days. When I heard the mantra to “take up more space” it made more sense to me than casting cares, find your faith, trusting, claiming, journaling, therapy, and ‘go to the doctor and take something for it.’ The scifi writer in me immediately saw the connection between how confining and narrow anxiety and grief are, and the need to relieve it by expanding my mind outside of myself.
The world is so big and full of blessings. Just because it doesn’t fall into your personal beliefs doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And in this case, a new perspective was just what I needed to open my eyes and embrace the life I have.
I think Broken Time has also been beneficial to my spiritual and mental healing. Like me, Alessi (the protagonist) recently lost her father, and is struggling with crippling anxiety. She’s using her work to cope, not realizing that the collapse in her perspective is reflected in the reality that her string theory experiments are collapsing. It’s a great reflection on the necessity to get back out there and connect with the world that exists. I hope this novel will connect with people who, like me, are on a journey to free themselves from the grief and confusion of the past few years and move on. It’s amazing how we all separate life from pre-COVID and post-COVID. Much like 9-11, we are defining our reality by those milestones. And much like 9-11, it will pass in the coming years. I wonder how long it will take. But we will get there together, and I hope that Broken Time becomes a novel that can help people connect with their own need to expand into a new reality and make it as normal as life was “before.”
Life has certainly been a shared journey since 2020. We’ve grappled with a lot of similar issues, and are expanding back out again in new and different ways. This expansion is a chance to apply the wisdom from our difficult season and grow in wonderful, creative ways. Here’s hoping we can create a better world than we had before. Maybe, when the distinction between the pre-and-post days is done, we will find a brighter reality than we imagined possible. We can do it. It’s all about honestly embracing the journey and taking up that space to find our hope and purpose in new and creative ways.
So find your space. Claim it. Expand, fill it up, and grow into all you were created to be. They say it’s a small world. This is our chance. Let’s make it bigger.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
Readers might not realize it, but you’re riding shotgun on the author’s life issues. Our writing reflects our day to day experience, and my goal for now is to reflect my current season of life, starting with short stories and moving into my future novels. I have broken free in a few of my short stories over the summer, and I need to work on doing that more consistently.
One issue that I’m living is expansion. It’s something I’ve discovered in my meditation and restorative yoga this year. Many people asked me “should you be doing that? You are Christian, after all.” Obviously, they were drawing connections to the Hindu aspects of yoga and some meditation, but honestly I don’t see what my religious preferences have to do with my physical and mental health. Christians do meditate, and I’ve got to stretch out these muscles from my weight lifting workout somehow (and those foam rollers are a ‘no’ for me). Honestly, the new perspective opened my eyes to managing my confusion and anxiety in those ‘grief stage’ and ‘post traumatic stress’ days. When I heard the mantra to “take up more space” it made more sense to me than casting cares, find your faith, trusting, claiming, journaling, therapy, and ‘go to the doctor and take something for it.’ The scifi writer in me immediately saw the connection between how confining and narrow anxiety and grief are, and the need to relieve it by expanding my mind outside of myself.
The world is so big and full of blessings. Just because it doesn’t fall into your personal beliefs doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And in this case, a new perspective was just what I needed to open my eyes and embrace the life I have.
I think Broken Time has also been beneficial to my spiritual and mental healing. Like me, Alessi (the protagonist) recently lost her father, and is struggling with crippling anxiety. She’s using her work to cope, not realizing that the collapse in her perspective is reflected in the reality that her string theory experiments are collapsing. It’s a great reflection on the necessity to get back out there and connect with the world that exists. I hope this novel will connect with people who, like me, are on a journey to free themselves from the grief and confusion of the past few years and move on. It’s amazing how we all separate life from pre-COVID and post-COVID. Much like 9-11, we are defining our reality by those milestones. And much like 9-11, it will pass in the coming years. I wonder how long it will take. But we will get there together, and I hope that Broken Time becomes a novel that can help people connect with their own need to expand into a new reality and make it as normal as life was “before.”
Life has certainly been a shared journey since 2020. We’ve grappled with a lot of similar issues, and are expanding back out again in new and different ways. This expansion is a chance to apply the wisdom from our difficult season and grow in wonderful, creative ways. Here’s hoping we can create a better world than we had before. Maybe, when the distinction between the pre-and-post days is done, we will find a brighter reality than we imagined possible. We can do it. It’s all about honestly embracing the journey and taking up that space to find our hope and purpose in new and creative ways.
So find your space. Claim it. Expand, fill it up, and grow into all you were created to be. They say it’s a small world. This is our chance. Let’s make it bigger.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
RSS Feed