Finally finished the book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller and I’ve got to say that I feel inspired to pay attention to the story that I’m writing about my life. Not just for the story’s sake but because right now, this moment is all that I am capable of being totally aware of at one time (that I know of) so why not really become as conscious as I can about the story that I’m weaving?

I remember when I was ten years old and my parents were on the cusp of divorcing, my brother and I used to go sit outside on the curb and talk. That may have been the first time that I can recall catching myself disassociating from my body because I would “come to” as my brother was speaking and have to tell myself, “okay there is the the oak tree and the trunk is brown and the grass on our lawn is green, etc. etc., etc.” so that I could be present in the moment no matter how painful it was. I spent a good part of therapy learning how not to disassociate from reality and how to instead stay in reality and forge ahead.

Flash forward several decades and now I’m paying attention to so many things going on in my life and around me. It still amazes me to watch a beautiful sunset and know that, that sunset is a one and only original that will never come again quite like this one. Yesterday afternoon my husband called me to the back door to look at the Cedar Waxwings busily grabbing china berries off of our deck. There was a whole flock of them (Cedar WW tend to be gregarious and social and enjoy hanging out in big groups) padding around with their feet and grabbing at berries with their beaks as their crests moved in various forms of communication. Later on when I moved outside to study, they had flown up into the tree and were picking the berries off letting the extras hit the deck below. It struck me as funny and I’m not sure why except that it must have been that peculiar bird-humor thing that I’ve experienced now and then with our feathered friends. These are the kind of stories that I enjoy showing up for today.

So you see, there are many ways that we can write the stories of our lives and all kinds of chapters and characters that we can and will introduce depending on what we choose to do. I’m wondering if really the most important ingredient that we can add to our stories is that of passion and immersion. That if, for you, writing your story is rafting down the Grand Canyon then be in that raft and smell the fresh air and water and feel the spray against your skin. Really be in that raft. If on the other hand, writing your story is sitting on your back porch looking at a lady bug finding her way along a blade of grass then really pay attention to that lady bug and notice the color of the blade of grass and the shininess of the lady bugs wings.

Become your own story even as you’re in the midst of writing it. I’m still working this out in my own mind and heart but I think I’m on to something here. I think I’m on to living and enjoying life while I’m in this Earth suit….all I have to say to God is “bring it on my man, bring it on”…

“A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller.

A little over a month ago I downloaded this book onto my Kindle to read and study with my MM group. I love this book. Mostly because Donald puts into words how I feel as a writer and also captures the humor of being human while seeking spiritual growth. But you may enjoy it for entirely different reasons and find a completely different assessment of what this book is about than I did.

Take this passage for instance, “But the want was not enough. My desire to live a better story didn’t motivate me to do anything. I kept sitting down and writing more and more boring words into my life. And when I wasn’t sitting down writing boring words, I was sitting down watching television. Steven King calls the television “the glass teat”, and I was suckling on it for all its sugar. I was licking the glass and pawing at it like a kitten.”

Donald’s been talking about wanting to write a different story about his life because he was approached by screenwriter/film makers to make a movie about his life. Taking his words and putting them on to the screen. This is something I have wanted to do my whole life. To make a movie about my life story.

My friend Kat reminded me that I have had many adventures over the 8 years or so that we’ve been in our MM group such as taking up scuba diving, flying in an open doored mini-helicopter over the Big Bend of Hawaii, hiking up volcanoes, etc. etc. etc. And that did feel good to be reminded that I wasn’t as big a loser as I sometimes feel that I am when it comes to writing my story but there is still something gnawing at me when it comes to writing what is in my mind and putting it into a cohesive form such as a book or out onto a screen into a movie.

I have a deep inner desire to help other people and I have done much deep inner excavation work to help myself out of the many crevices and holes that I’ve crawled into over my life but sometimes when it comes to putting it all down and capturing it onto a page, I become immediately bored with what I am writing and automatically begin asking myself why on earth anyone would want to read what I have to say? How egotistical can I be!!? But this is seriously the kind of mind f&*k that I put myself through.

The converse side of this, by the way, is that the little (big?) grinchy part of me that does not believe that I have anything to say that anyone would want to read (much less get help from) is that I totally judge many of the books that I see on the shelves of book stores and wonder how in the bloody hell these people completed these books, got em published and people are BUYING them for criminey sakes! And don’t even get me started on movies.

Back to Donald Miller, what I love about how he writes is that he writes the truth about where he is at the moment and then shows how he crawled out of the hole that he dug. This gives me great hope and also gives me ideas about how I can craft some of the stories of my life so that I can help other people feel connected and to know that they are not alone on this journey we call life. For that is the big lie that the inner grinch in us tells us, that we are all alone.

Only another writer really understands the pain of being a writer and having this strong desire to write and the need to be read and heard. I leave you with this passage from “A Thousand Miles in a Million Years” which just makes me want to hug Donald Miller:

“That summer, the summer after the winter we started writing the movie, the Tour de France was being broadcast on television. And for some reason it affected me differently than watching other sports. I mean, when I watch football it doesn’t make me want to play football, and baseball doesn’t make me want to play baseball, but for whatever reason, watching Lance Armstrong win his seventh consecutive Tour de France made me want to ride a bike. I figure if a guy can be diagnosed with cancer and overcome cancer and then win seven Tours then start an organization trying to beat cancer itself, the least I could do would be to get off the couch. So I started riding a bike. I just kind of lifted my legs a little and made a circular motion with my feet while sitting in a chair watching the Tour de France. I made believe I was winning. Like I said, I live in dreams.”

Go read this book and writers out there, just write one page today. If you can’t do anything else today, just write down one page.

“A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller.

A little over a month ago I downloaded this book onto my Kindle to read and study with my MM group. I love this book. Mostly because Donald puts into words how I feel as a writer and also captures the humor of being human while seeking spiritual growth. But you may enjoy it for entirely different reasons and find a completely different assessment of what this book is about than me.

Take this passage for instance, “But the want was not enough. My desire to live a better story didn’t motivate me to do anything. I kept sitting down and writing more and more boring words into my life. And when I wasn’t sitting down writing boring words, I was sitting down watching television. Steven King calls the television “the glass teat”, and I was suckling on it for all its sugar. I was licking the glass and pawing at it like a kitten.”

Donald’s been talking about wanting to write a different story about his life because he was approached by screenwriter/film makers to make a movie about his life. Taking his words and putting them on to the screen. This is something I have wanted to do my whole life. To make a movie about my life story.

My friend Kat reminded me that I have had many adventures over the 8 years or so that we’ve been in our MM group such as taking up scuba diving, flying in an open doored mini-helicopter over the Big Bend of Hawaii, hiking up volcanoes, etc. etc. etc. And that did feel good to be reminded that I wasn’t as big a loser as I sometimes feel that I am when it comes to writing my story but there is still something gnawing at me when it comes to writing what is in my mind and putting it into a cohesive form such as a book or out onto a screen into a movie.

I have a deep inner desire to help other people and I have done much deep inner excavation work to help myself out of the many crevices and holes that I’ve crawled into over my life but sometimes when it comes to putting it all down and capturing it onto a page, I become immediately bored with what I am writing and automatically begin asking myself why on earth anyone would want to read what I have to say? How egotistical can I be!!? But this is seriously the kind of mind f&*k that I put myself through.

The converse side of this, by the way, is that the little (big?) grinchy part of me that does not believe that I have anything to say that anyone would want to read (much less get help from) is that I totally judge many of the books that I see on the shelves of book stores and wonder how in the bloody hell these people completed these books, got em published and people are BUYING them for criminey sakes! And don’t even get me started on movies.

Back to Donald Miller, what I love about how he writes is that he writes the truth about where he is at the moment and then shows how he crawled out of the hole that he dug. This gives me great hope and also gives me ideas about how I can craft some of the stories of my life so that I can help other people feel connected and to know that they are not alone on this journey we call life. For that is the big lie that the inner grinch in us tells us, that we are all alone.

Only another writer really understands the pain of being a writer and having this strong desire to write and the need to be read and heard. I leave you with this passage from “A Thousand Miles in a Million Years” which just makes me want to hug Donald Miller:

“That summer, the summer after the winter we started writing the movie, the Tour de France was being broadcast on television. And for some reason it affected me differently than watching other sports. I mean, when I watch football it doesn’t make me want to play football, and baseball doesn’t make me want to play baseball, but for whatever reason, watching Lance Armstrong win his seventh consecutive Tour de France made me want to ride a bike. I figure if a guy can be diagnosed with cancer and overcome cancer and then win seven Tours then start an organization trying to beat cancer itself, the least I could do would be to get off the couch. So I started riding a bike. I just kind of lifted my legs a little and made a circular motion with my feet while sitting in a chair watching the Tour de France. I made believe I was winning. Like I said, I live in dreams.”

Go read this book and writers out there, just write one page today. If you can’t do anything else today, just write down one page.