Morning Pogue,

Sometimes life will take an unexpected or unwanted turn and things aren’t so good. We didn’t want this but there it is right in the middle of our world. We have no plans for dealing with it but know that it can’t stay like this, not if life is to have the qualities that we want. So something has to be done.

I’ve long said we can allow ourselves a day of self pity when we feel like the sky has dropped on us but then, well we have to knuckle down and push forward, or go back but we can’t stay here. What’s it to be? If we retire then we may never make progress in life, may always have to face this moment if we want to progress. I’m hoping we decide to move forward, to grasp life and believe we have a future. And there are times when it is that belief, that hope, that maintains us and gets us through. It’s the being able to see that there is light, maybe just a speck, in the current darkness. Then it is the slow steady walk towards that light. The speed isn’t the important thing but rather the direction that is taken.

Life isn’t written and the future doesn’t have to be as you see it in this moment. Like a novelist writing a book the next chapter has a number of not yet written possibilities and whilst the plot may only have a small amount of flex, using that flex, will alter the story’s outcome and potential ending. A little flex chapter by chapter will add to the possibility of various endings, multiple outcomes.

So I guess I’m saying we ought to push on when we are unexpectedly ambushed by life. We take stock of ourselves and then move forward knowing that there is a better day out there and what we have at this moment will not last forever. Do you remember what Oscar Wilde said:

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

There will be moments when we find ourselves unexpectedly cast into the gutter but as Oscar Wilde knew, there is hope even there. There are specks of light which speak of a better day. Tell us of possibilities, another world, a future. So in that moment choose to look up, not down or around, but up and believe in the future which will come and determine to persevere until you achieve that day. Start writing toward the finale you want in your novel, maybe little by little, but write in that direction.

Yours, always believing for a better day,

Wic