Innocent Pen-Stander

I was there, minding my own business. Sleeping. Resting comfortably because I know if I have no great inspiration for the FaithWriters Challenge then I need to just let it be and not force it. And so I was. Comfortable.

Then I woke up. This story just burning in me to get out. I balked. I don't even have a full day to let it sit or get feedback from my challenge partner. Aargh.

But I know not to ignore these feelings. So I wrote. I kind of liked it. Sort of parable, sort of fairy tale, only not. Yeah, it's okay.

Understand, it wasn't a "oooooh, that's good--- ohhhhh, I like that" kind of feeling- just a "yep, that'll do" feeling. (Yes, like in Babe.)

I had 30 minutes to spare that morning. And off it went. I hoped it'd go over well.

Some nibbles, some nice comments, a so-so reception... then fast forward to this morning...and... WOW. Knock me over with a feather and WHOOP WHOOP. 1st? I'm sure I read better pieces than mine... but I'm not giving back my placement. :)

Here's the story link if you want to read it: Tending Grief's Garden. For Lew.

Now, if you're wondering about Lew... well, he's a good man- I know his son & daughter-in-law very well. They are dear friends of mine. And Lew's wife died this last fall, from cancer. It was awful. A woman that meant so much to so many. One of those people that walk the earth and make the world around them better. A person that others find irreplacable. One of them. She had purpose in this life and to have her gone is, without understatment, devastating for those who loved her dearly. She was no ordinary woman. And while I knew her very little- her impact is apparent in so many ways.

My grief is for the grief my friends carry. For the grief this man, who is now in that liminal space between what normal was and what normal will be.

When I woke up with the story, I also woke up with the sense that it was for him, not catered or written for him, but that it was meant for him to have. I didn't want to tell him or my friends about it unless I knew it went over okay with my peers. And I guess it did. So the friends have been informed and asked to pass it along to Lew.

I said on the FaithWriter's forum that I really feel like I'm just an innocent pen-stander on this one. I doesn't feel like my story. And I think that's a very good thing.