Dreaming

I don't remember how old I was when I first set my heart on England. Maybe it happened as I was reading through the Chronicles of Narnia on the living room floor and crying over the last page just because I didn't want to story to end. Or maybe it didn't happen until the movies came out and I began to learn more about C. S. Lewis. It grew as I sobbed over the story of Goodnight, Mr. Tom and was certainly already there as I began to read poetry and care more about authors who all seemed to have one thing in common, England.

I guess the more I learned about England the more I loved it, even from such a distance. In my mind it was a world of words and the place I dreamed of visiting.

I still can't fully believe that I am sitting in Burgh Le Marsh, England as I write this. It seems incredible to me that I have had about nine cups of English Tea since I flew in just two nights ago, or that today I climbed up two old windmills, one of them the only mill in the country still used as a mill and not just a tourist attraction, and the other turned into a beautiful house once used as a Bed n' Breakfast. I can't fathom the fact that the phone boxes are actually real and not just a red spot on the curtain in my room, and all that perfect picturesque scenery is really there, not just the setting for a film or the photo on a postcard.

I guess I haven't had any sort of adventurous stories since I got here, but driving through those brilliantly green hills and trees and breathing in the fresh England air is more than enough. I spent a bit of yesterday by the sea and ran down to dip my feet into the freezing ocean and ate Cadbury Ice Cream and made it back to the house in time for yet another cup of tea. Then today the windmills and a stroll through Boston and a Sing at the church to practice for Sunday Worship.

It's all been perfectly lovely, and I cannot wait to get to London tomorrow to meet up with a friend and possibly some more of the students who I'll be attending school with for the next two months. I know London won't be as peaceful and serene as Lincolnshire, but I have a feeling I'll love it just as much. After all, I'm in this story land of my dreams now.

Above the Air

I think all of today I've had and will have my head in the clouds, in more ways than one.

I'm leaving. I'm actually leaving to Germany and then England and all these things that I've dreamed about for so long are actually happening now. Already I can feel so many stories waiting to happen so I can write all about them. I really can't tell you how excited I am, and at the moment the excitement is definitely beating the worry, which is awesome.

Of course, it would be nice if this itch of a headache would go away. I took Ibuprofen already, what more do you want?

Anyway, I'm in the Denver Airport right now waiting for my plane to arrive and load and take off, and then I really will be in the clouds. I had a bit of an issue checking in, but the united staff person who helped me was super nice and helpful and we got it all figured out and I have three boarding passes that will get me to Germany.

The scary part will be finding my flight in Houston in time; I have a 32 minute layover. Youch. I already have all these prejudices against Houston, I really don't need any more reasons to dislike that airport. Oh well, at least I won't be bored.

Then two hours in London shouldn't be too bad, and I feel at least a little bit more confident now that I can make it from the airport to the train in Germany and find my way to where friends will pick me up.

Wow. I just say that and my mind is blown away again. I'm going to Germany. What? This is actually happening? Yep. I don't even need to pinch myself; I guess that headache is there just to remind me that this is real.

Anyway, send some prayers my way if you think about it and I shall update when I get the chance!

When Magic Comes to Life

Have you ever read the book Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke? It's one of my all-time favorites. Well, if you haven't, you definitely should as soon as possible.

But I'll read you the back of the book anyway, to help you out:

"One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from Inkheart, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she had only read about in books. Somehow, Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. Only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever." -Inkheart

Basically, Meggie and her father, Mo, can bring characters out of the book just by reading a story out loud. Needless to say, I fell in love with this book. I cherish the idea that a character in a book could come to life. After all, in Cornelia Funke's own words: “Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?”  

I know I certainly have, and often do with the Whisperers.
Now they are coming to life even more, and I can almost hear them Whispering to me, telling me to hurry up and get their book written. I want to obey; I really do. And I want so much to be able to finish and send it off to publishers and pray with all my might that the Whisperers can Whisper just as persistently to the publishing companies.

Maybe one day the Shadow Whispers will be all over the world being read by people. Maybe someday the words that I write will be an inspiration to another inspiring author who will in turn create his or her own novels to inspire someone else... and on down the line.

Who knows. Maybe?

I can only hope so.

Regarding Dreams

I believe that in many ways dreams are a necessary part of our life. We cannot move forward if we have no goal, no final destination. What is a journey without an end?

I believe that my unseen author has already paved a perfect path for me. My journey has already been traveled by him. However, I myself have yet to walk the road, or read the book. I'm stuck in this one little section of the road with my head spinning in circle as I try to figure out where I came from and where I am going.

I look ahead to the dreams that I know will carry me through. As I mentioned in my last post, the dream of going to England is one step closer to being fulfilled. Now all I need to do is gain the patience I need to wait until the time comes when I can leave.

A second dream is becoming a published author, something that I have not quite gotten a hold of yet. So, yeah, I submitted a few poems to an online poetry magazine which I have not yet heard back from. But other than that I haven't really done anything to reach this dream. Well, other than writing a novel and editing it four times.

Okay, so maybe I was a paid author throughout my elementary years. I used to write short stories and sell them to my teachers and classmates. And what teacher would refuse to buy a short story from a cute little third grader. You've got to encourage any academic potential, you know. Besides, for a few pesos extra I would include illustrations. And I could write the stories in English or Spanish, depending on what my audience wanted. I had different prices for different lengths, and allowed classmates to preorder a story with a specific plot or character or setting. It was a good business, and a got a whole lot of candy out of the deal. Maybe that's why I'm so addicted to chocolate now. It's all because of writing.



This isn't me. And doesn't even look like me. But, you get the point.

Hm. I feel like I'm rambling now. I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. Honestly, I don't know why dreams are so important, and I don't know how my cute past self selling words is relevant to anything at all. But, rambling is part of writing, isn't it?

All I'm saying is that one day all of my dreams will come true, if they haven't already. So I keep on writing, and dreaming, and combining the two through novels and poems and stories.

It is, after all, a world of words.