Living A Better Story

by emma | Nov 24, 2009 | Books

About a month ago, I set out on a trip to the US, which inevitably began with lots of hanging around in airports. Wasted time? I think not. A few hours in Heathrow gave me ample time to read Don Miller’s latest book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. Like all of Miller’s stuff, it’s ridiculously easy to read, and ridiculously hard to read at the same time. It’s easy because I read it in a couple of hours. And it’s difficult because I’m still wrestling with putting it into practice.

And that’s the truly beautiful thing about it. It inspired me to live a better story.

“If Steve was right about a good story being a condensed version of life – that is, if story is just life without the meaningless scenes – I wondered if life could be lived more like a good story in the first place. I wondered whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally.”

It’s easy to get caught up in reading about other people’s exciting stories, their exciting lives. But the truth is we can just as easily have our own exciting story. We will have to choose to endure pain and hardship to get there no doubt, but joy does not (nor should not) come easily.

“Part of me wonders if our stories aren’t being stolen by the easy life.”

Returning to Glasgow after 3 weeks of being on the road sometimes feels anti-climatic. Yet my story is just turning a page, starting a new chapter. I’ve been inspired (again) to live a better story. To not just talk about the stuff I dream of doing, but actually do it. That means actually changing something, doing something differently. For my part, I’m learning French again, and starting to navigate what it means to be a photographer full-time.

It’s scary. I might fail. It might not work out.

And that’d be ok. It matters that I try.

“Sometimes when I watch [Lucy, the dog] I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories.”

What are you doing to lose yourself in the story? What would you do?