Cheese Hunting

I recently read one of those Facebook memory posts. You know the type. Here's something you posted two years ago; why don’t you repost it?

I chose not to repost. Not because it wasn’t relevant. It was very relevant. In fact I could have written it this week. I didn’t post it because a) no one would want to hear it again and b) I found it confronting.

Ever feel like the cliché ‘going around the mountain one more time’ applies to you? Well this was that kind of moment.

In the post I asked for prayer because of health and work frustrations – frustrations almost identical to those that pushed me to tears this week. Now prayer is good. It is one of the most powerful forces on earth and essential to our relationship with our loving God. It is also a way we can help one another. Writing, while lots of fun, can be a lonely business and online communities like CWD can be a place of invaluable support. Life throws a plethora of plot twists at us and many in this group have asked others to stand in the gap while they negotiated a difficult chapter in their life. Asking for prayer is good. What isn’t good is that my situation hadn’t changed at all.

Who wants to read a story where the protagonist makes no progress and continues in the same story loop chapter after chapter?

Now there are some things that we can’t change. Health issues are often beyond our control. I believe our God longs to heal us but I also know that healing is a mystery. I’m still believing and still trying things. Like many others in this community, I’ve known God’s strength and sustaining power – but I haven’t seen the breakthrough. Yet.

But what of career? The day job issue is a biggie for us creative types. We often need it to make ends meet and it can give us a sense of satisfaction and social connection – yet it can work against us too. I still work part time in a physical profession and have experienced niggling injuries and other issues that make it hard to be creative in my downtime. Much of my mountain circling has involved this cycle of frustration.

Now this frustration is understandable but to still be in the same position two years down the track and not having made changes? That’s not as understandable. If you never make changes how do you expect things to change?

There is a popular motivational book called ‘Who Moved My Cheese’. The story features two little human characters, ‘Hem’ and ‘Haw’ and two mice, ‘Sniff’ and ‘Scurry’. The mice and humans pair up and eventually find lots of cheese (a symbol of happiness and success) at Cheese Station C. When the cheese runs out Sniff and Scurry head off to look for other cheese but the two humans stay behind getting grumpy with each other. Haw wants to look for more cheese but Hem finds his old routine comforting and he’s afraid to try anything different. All he wants is for the cheese to come back. Of course it doesn’t. Eventually Haw sees his own fear and writes on the wall, ‘what would you do if you weren’t afraid?’ Haw heads off and finds crumbs of cheese. He takes them back to Hem who (spoiler) refuses them. Eventually Haw finds a new supply of cheese. Then he hears a sound. Could it be Hem looking for cheese?

So… the call to action? Well I’m not brave, but this post is about me joining Haw in writing on the wall, ‘What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?’ I’ve got some thoughts and I’ll keep you posted as to what happens but I’m determined not to be in the same position by the three year anniversary of that original post. If I am then please feel free to hit me over the head with a very large round of Camembert.

But if I’m in this situation now then there must be others who are stuck too. Are you scared because someone has moved your cheese? Or do you see the signs that your cheese is running out and you don’t know what to do? Let me know in the comments below.

Maybe we can go cheese hunting together ☺?


Reference: 
Johnson, spencer, Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change In Your Work and In Your Life. New York : Putman, 1998. Print.

Check out the YouTube video 'Who Moved My Cheese?' https://youtu.be/16hxCB1Dvd4

Sue Jeffrey was born in Scotland but moved to Brisbane, Australia with her family when she was just a wee lass. After a childhood spent reading, drawing and accumulating stray animals, Sue studied veterinary science and later moved to Adelaide where she worked as both a vet and a pastor. After a sojourn of several years in the Australian Capital Territory, Sue returned to Adelaide with two dogs, a very nice husband, and a deep desire to write. Sue has a MA in creative writing and her short stories and poems have appeared in several anthologies including Tales of the Upper Room, Something in the Blood: Vampire Stories With a Christian Bite, Glimpses of Light and A Chicken Can Make a Difference. Sue won the 'Short' category in the inaugural Tabor Adelaide/ Life FM 'Stories of Life' award and her e-book, 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story,' is available from Amazon.com. Sue also paints animal portraits

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Writing as therapy

After the Writer’s Getaway this year my husband and I did some travelling around the areas in New South Wales where the ancestors I want to write about next, came from. I sat with some relatives I’ve never met, but had arranged to meet up with. I heard their stories and memories. I got a sense of their personalities.

Some of the small towns we visited; Lawrence, Brushgrove, Mororo, Midginbil, are places I’ve never been to before, and are probably smaller communities now than they were 150 years ago. It’s a strange and inspiring experience to wander in these places, to imagine the lives of  those who once lived there, and from whom I’ve descended.  

It occurred to me that researching for a novel is a fascinating journey, and also a very therapeutic one. Whether searching for facts about people, or historical events, or choosing an environment or particular era for a story, I’m sure we all, as writers, go on a very evocative journey, before we even start to write. 

We reflect on the ways people interact, how they change and grow, how they fall in love and develop relationships, how they cope with trauma and loss, how they achieve great things, and how God works in and through the lives of people. We try to step inside other people’s worlds; people who once lived or who are complete works of fiction, and we draw on our knowledge about how human beings function; what makes them do the things they do and respond to their world the way they do. We imagine ourselves in places and situations and relationships we may never have been, or we go back in our minds to what we have experienced and learn from it. Some may project forward to how things will be in the future, or imagine other kinds of worlds where love or hope or goodness may better be experienced.

Surely we can’t help but be changed ourselves by this process. These exercises of the mind and heart are not unlike those I would use in therapy with people who are stuck emotionally or relationally. Remember, imagine, re-construe. These can lead people to find release from the past, to find closure, to discover hope, and to make real behavioural changes in their lives.

This is surely what we offer our readers as well; an opportunity, not only to escape for a little while, but to imagine other lives, to discover new things about themselves, and hopefully to re-construe some parts of their own lives, and then to make real and positive changes; emotionally, relationally and spiritually.

So I think the writing experience from beginning to end, for writer and reader, is not only enjoyable, but also very therapeutic, a wonderful tool in God’s hands. One more reason to keep writing – as if I needed another reason to do what I love. 

There are three books available in my Turning the Tide series, for which I am doing this research; Mary’s Guardian, Charlotte’s Angel and Tangled Secrets. The fourth in the series, Truly Free, will be released in 2013

Forgiving Michael, an earlier novel, is available to read on blog http://www.carolpreston.blogspot.com

Suzannah’s Gold, my first novel, is available on e-book http://www.amazon.com/author/carolpreston

http://www.carolpreston.com.au   

New Year, New Chapter

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

New Year, New Chapter

A week or so into the new year and I'm still a bit dazed that it's actually here. I love to have goals set for each year and to review the year past, to think about what I've learned, achieved, discovered. However the end of last year was a bit of a blur for me, My husband retired just before Christmas, so leading up to that we had lots of events, celebrations, goodbyes etc. It was a great climax for him after many years working in disability services and achieving some wonderful things. I'm very proud of him. But the idea of retirement - while we've thought about it a great deal - is still a little surreal. It's been harder for me to plan for this year and to set goals knowing that Neil's retirement will bring changes for us both, and waiting to see what he want to do in this first year. So it really is a whole new chapter of our lives and to be honest I have mixed feelings about it. While there will be great opportunities for us to do things we haven't been able to do before, I have grown used to many hours through the week where I can decide what to do; write, read, spend time with friends, work around the house, reflect, pray. I'm not sure how having a man around much of the time will affect all that, and I'm praying that God gives me grace and understanding and patience. Looking back there have been other periods of time in my life where changes have brought a new chapter of living and as I reflect on them now I'm grateful for the new things that God has done in my life through them. One of them of course is writing, and I cannot now imagine life without that, so in a very real way I'm excited about what God may have ahead for me as well as for Neil.  

One of the things I am pleased to have achieved in the past couple of months is a re-edit of my very first novel, Suzannah's Gold, and now thanks to Rochelle that is available on Kindle. So that's one of my goals achieved and a pretty good start to my year! As I reread Suzannah's story I was struck again by the tumultuous changes that were forced upon this young girl who was transported at the age of 12 to the other side of the world. It was the terrifying and seemingly hopeless situations that Suzannah found herself in, that inspired me as I wrote that story about my great great grandmother eight years ago. Her challenges make mine seem insignificant. And so I will face this new year, this new chapter  of my life, with excitement, gratitude, curiosity and faith. If I must let go of some things, if I get frustrated or impatient, I will remember 

Suzannah, and I will be reminded of how blessed I am. 

I'm sure you will all have your challenges for the year ahead as well and I pray that there will be many blessings for us all. 

I will not be around in February as Neil and I are going to the Antarctic for a month. That's been his retirement dream for quite a few years. No doubt it will be a wonderful experience for us both and I'll probably be full of news about it when I next blog. Carol