Your life Book
"In the end, we'll all become stories." - Alice in Wonderland?
Books are small, but there are so many comparisons that can be made with life. Editing, turning the page, stories, and chapters- let's examine a few!
Editing- Cambridge Dictionary gives this definition of edit: to make changes to a text or film, deciding what will be removed and what will be kept in, in order to prepare it for being printed or shown. Given this definition, can you edit your life? There seem to be two different answers to this question:
No- "The past can't be changed, forgotten, edited, or erased. It can only be accepted." - unknown.
Yes- "Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It's your masterpiece after all." - Nathan W. Morris.
I believe that editing your life is taking the time to reflect on and learn from the events that you feel made you who you are. "I suggest that you pick up the pencil, and with compassion, allow the words, wounds, and pain of the past to be written, embraced, examined, understood, accepted, and loved for all that you’ve learned and experienced." - Dr. Wayne Dryer.
No matter which side you choose to believe, the following remains true: "You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page." - Jodi Picoult.
Speaking of pages, turning the page is a popular reference to moving on with your life. "There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on." -Zayn Malik. Turning the page in a book is an easy thing to do, but not so easy in your life's book. In my own book, you will know which pages were hard to turn. "Everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it." - David Foster Wallace.
A good book contains stories that explain how the plot unfolds. We would like to think that we are good people but- "We're all bad in someone's story." - unknown. Something small and unintentional, like a scowl when you are in a bad mood, or something bigger and intentional, like giving the finger to the person who just cut you off in traffic, all affect others. It is easy to forget that we bear some responsibility for the way others perceive their own life's story. Ither favorably- "Even though you didn't make it to the end of my story, I will always have the corner folded down on your page... because it was one of my favorites." - Akhira/@Artofpoets.
Or not- "Feel free to tell everyone that I'm the monster in your story. But please don't forget to mention in which chapter you created me." - unknown. Speaking of chapters, they are a favorite theme when referring to your life as a book. They can be started, stuck on, read, and closed.
Starting a chapter- "Don't allow yourself to wake up with yesterday's issues troubling your mind. Refuse to live life backwards. See every day as a new chapter." - Attitude to Inspiration.
Being stuck in a chapter happens to us all: "There will be many chapters in your life. Don't get lost in the one you're in now." - unknown.
"You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one." - unknown.
"You can't step into the next chapter while dragging the last one behind you. Trying to have both gives you neither." - Cory Muscara.
Reading a chapter- "Everyone has a chapter they don't read out loud." - unknown. Or closely related, “In the book of life, everyone has chapters they don’t like reading out loud.”-Heather Webber, South of the Buttonwood Tree (2020).
Closing Chapters- "Learn to let go when it's time. When someone wants to leave, let them. When someone pushes you away, leave them alone. Life is too short to be spent convincing others of your worthiness. You're here to learn, create, live, spread love, and flourish. Unless you learn to let go, unless you forgive yourself and the situation. Unless you realize the chapter is over, you cannot move forward. So accept the lesson and never stop evolving." - unknown.
In the end, parts of your life's book will include all who come in contact with you. No matter how much growing you have done or what events happened in previous chapters, most people will only see the sentence, paragraph, or page that they showed up on. Not only that, but they will see it through the lens of their own experiences. "Books are mirrors; you only see in them what you have inside you." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind.
If I were to pull your life's book off the shelf in the great library in the sky and read it from beginning to end, I would understand you and your choices better. Maybe that is what eternity is for, curled up in a comfy chair with your favorite animals that passed before you, reading life books of the people you came in contact with here on earth, so that you might understand them and forgive them for their trespasses against you. I can think of worse ways to spend your time.
Love and Hope,
Big Sky Baby