There are 3 stories I would like to tell…they are all fictional but based on some real world very intense events…the names of the guilty would be changed to protect the innocent, LOL.  The hardest part of starting any one of these stories is really just getting starting…to actually committing to engaging the words and bring structure to the tale…letting the momentum carry me through the journey to completion.  My biggest fear, not unlike most writers I suspect is two fold: first – that the story will be flat and uninspiring (even if only to turn to the next page), and second, that the story will not capture the full impact and resolve of the tale I am inspired to tell!  You see, all of these stories would reflect in some manner real life events that shaped, designed and changed my life…and, though the tales would be mostly fictional…to fail them would be more than I could bare.  One story would be a recounting of the spiritual journey of discovery I took with 5 friends at University, and how First Nation ritual practice opened my universe to some pretty incredible experiences – it impacted all of us so intensely and differently…it changed us forever – some rejoiced…one rejected it, one ignored it…and one died.   The second story would be reflective of the adoption of my children, except told from the perspective and events of the biological father who has due to situation and events of mainland China had these loves ripped from him…from my perspective it would have to be magnificent and insane events because I cannot imagine a situation where I would voluntarily give up these beautiful little souls. I know that if I were him I would search endlessly and having failed each day – die each night…the very idea makes me almost panic and I want to cry for him and tell his story.  The third tale has been with me the longest…and speaks to the tensions between organized religion and faith and spiritual experience.  It celebrates what I know to be true about the other side of death…about those that speak to me and whom I ask to look over me…protect those I love and guide me.  The antagonist and tension are the forces real and perceived by organized religion – in so many ways my antithesis to true spiritual awakening – that goes to great lengths to silence the voices of the ancestors…magnifies and advocates fear and ignorance…and the expunging of faiths final savior…the last descendant of Christ.  Well…in all three tales…the stories would go something like that, ha.  Truth be told I am just simply afraid to begin, but as time passes I find myself finding more and more courage to start…perhaps understanding that sooner or later this opportunity will be lost…that in not telling these stories this would be the bigger failure.

Photo by Lawrence Lewis (2012)

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Lawrence Lewis

“The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.”  – Friedrich Nietzsche

About Lawrence Lewis

I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂