Creating Your Future by Telling Yourself a Story

The title is a little mis-leading.  Maybe it should be “My Future Became Reality because I Told Myself a Story.” 

Regardless, I was so excited to have 2 significant experiences in my new community, and I believe it is because of the vision stories I have written in the past, and savoring the little moments that have actually happened along the way.

My “community stories” started as early as I could remember – maybe 2^nd grade YMCA camp when we talked about what kind of fish we wanted to be and in what kind of body of water.  I always wanted to be a facilitator/organizer fish in a little pond.  Growing up and living in big cities all my life, I longed for a bit of Americana – small rural towns, but filled with a progressive and loving group of fish.

As I look back over my journal entries through the years, I have written stories of what I want my life to be like – some based on little moments that have actually happened connecting with people and hanging out at town squares in Atlanta neighborhoods.  Other stories were more elaborate and sounded like an excerpt from the movie, Sweet Home Alabama.

Moving to Sylva, and starting the café are 2 of the steps I took toward making my community stories real.  The downside of starting the business is that we haven’t had much time to socialize and volunteer in the community.  However, the café has afforded us the opportunity to meet a lot of great people, and offer up the space to facilitate “community” gathering.

Being brand new to an established town can be challenging, but we’ve been able to connect with some awesome folks who are plugged in to the community – one being the women at Fusions Spa.  Last Monday night we did an event together at the café and it felt like all the stories I had written.  People were laughing with each other, reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, getting massage, and enjoying just hanging out.  It was my utopia to serve them, interact and just observe the fun.

What followed that week was a crazy storm that knocked out power, and downed trees all over the community.  Thursday and Friday we saw so many members of the Sylva community and heard stories of neighbors coming together to help one another.  I was amazed at their awesome positive attitudes.  Again, utopia for me.

So if there is something you really want, write a story about it.  Think about it often.  Notice the real-life moments that reflect the essence of your stories and savor them.  You will find that your work of fiction is becoming an autobiography of sorts.

Noticing the Transformation of Stories,

Bernadette

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