Story, part 3

"Stories tend to get out of hand, and this one has taken an unexpected turn." J.R.R. Tolkien

This is one of my favorite quotes about stories. As someone who tries to write stories, I can personally attest that often you think you know how the plot is going to go, how the characters are going to react. And then, right in the middle of everything, you notice that things aren't going as you thought they would.

You have two choices. You can become frustrated, and try to make the story go back to the way you thought it was going. Sometimes you might succeed. Sometimes it might even be the right thing to do. The other choice is to go down the unexpected road to see where it might lead you. If you don't like the ending, you can always go back and start over.

Now, in life the going back and starting over bit is a tad more difficult. Nonetheless, I would like to challenge us all to try choosing the second path. Try being open to the twists and turns we didn't forsee and didn't plan.

Who knows? They might just change our lives.