My Best Seller

A simple mug my daughter gave me, when I turned 44 this week, has got me asking questions that I don't like all the answers to.

"Life is a story

make yours a best seller"

As I waited for the kettle to boil, I stared at the words recognizing not just the encouragement but the challenge.  The words reverberated in my psyche, taunting me and asking Are you living up to the challenge?

Before I could answer, I had to create the criteria, what would it mean to live a best seller? Let's see...

Do I give? Too much to too many.

Do I know how to receive? Not graciously.

Do I make time to do what I want? Not enough. It's easy to put other people's priorities above mine, especially when they are louder and more insistent or have big brown eyes shiny with tears.

Do I say yes to adventure? I could be more adventurous. Sometimes I talk myself out of wanting things or out of doing things.

Do I dream? About so many things.

Do I honor truth? As long as it doesn't cause me to hurt someone else. When I would rather take a long hot bath than spend 20 minutes playing a game of sorry with my 6-year-old I usually cave because I know that these days are evaporating as rapidly as raindrops from an August sun shower in Florida.

Do I connect with my inner self? Quieting the voices from outside of me is difficult. When I find myself with time to spare it takes a while for me to unpack my brain and identify the voices behind the thoughts.

Do I look for the blessing? Yes, well mostly. I have a great ability to connect to the blessing and the lesson in most situations. Some take me a heartbeat longer to identify than others but I come to the blessing quickly.

Whether I succeed as a writer or not (whatever that means) and whether I capture my story on paper or not, we are all called to create lives which, if written down, would contain bestselling stories of all kinds.  Love stories, tragedies, comedies, stories of perseverance that inspire.

We should live stories that would entertain a group of friends (and a handful of strangers) at a bar, stories to whisper quietly to a loved one over wine and stories to share with our children as we tuck them in at night.

Good thing I'm young, I thought as I lowered my empty mug and banged it satisfyingly on the counter top, plenty of time to collect more stories.