Hope, or What It Takes to Get You There

Hope, or What It Takes to Get You There
11/28/08 AEDM #28, Illustration Friday
Golden Fluid Acrylic

If you look close, can you see the balloon? That is hope's power. Sure, it's delicate, sure it's practically invisible, but if you have faith, it will get you to the land you have been dreaming about.

Flying Girl is ready. She is almost there, almost reaching that tower rising out of the Autumn woods, the place where fairy tales are made real.

However, I would like you to notice that this Flying Girl is not a princess. She is not a fairy tale herself. She lives quite firmly in the real world.. as is evidenced by the thick soles of her boots. That's for all the grounding that needs to accompany the hope.

What would happen if hope was unbalanced? That would be when we put all our hopes in one basket, expecting that to come real, without being realistic and having secondary plans. It's also when we think all we have to do is wish hard enough for our dreams and they will come magically true. That is not what hope is about. Hope is about believing that your actions will bring about what they need to bring about in order to reach your dreams. The key to balancing the unbalance "Hope" is to take action. Hope without action is mere wishing. In order to make hope function, you need to allow hope to buoy your steps. Because you are not a passive princess waiting for your dreams to come true, you are the hero of your own story, and heroes have to do the work, not wait for the lady on tv to pull their lotto numbers.

***

This was inspired by the prompt from Illustration Friday, Balloon. It was only after I finished it that I realized I had already done a Flying Girl with a balloon. So I checked back, and there she was, another balloon flying girl with a red bob and stylish clothes. What the heck? Totally coincidental.

But you see, hope floats. This one is a bit more serene and hopeful than the last one. A little bit closer to reaching where she is going, I think. And I like the way this one has a nearly invisible balloon.

Maybe it's because we are nearing the end of nanowrimo. I myself am 1,989 words away from winning, and I expect to reach 50k by naptime today. Of course, the book won't be finished, so I would like to maintain my 10k a week goal until I am done. Who knows how long it will take. Well, I hope to be done with the first draft sooner rather than later, but the end product of the book? Who knows.

I have recently come to the realization that something in me never expects to be done with these books, almost as if it isn't possible to actually complete a novel, all the way to the final draft. And certainly not possible to get an agent or an editor.

How interesting.

The dream is there, but what is that lack of faith that it will be achieved?

I have learned a lot from writing this nano book. I am clearer about what is going to happen, and thinking that I am going to remove a whole blooming lot of what is already there. I want to simplify my story. I love a simple and true story, even if the setting is grand and global, I like the simple issues: love, loss, fear, struggle, transformation, power, joy, difficult choices. You know, things that everyone goes through on their own level.

I want to remember that I prefer simple, even if I have more facility to handle more complicated plots and themes and ideas. Just because you CAN do something does not mean you SHOULD do something. Compare, for instance, since I am writing a Space Saga, the simple Hero's Journey of Star Wars with the mess that is the final three installments of the Star Wars story. Lucas had money and power out the wazoo, and used it to make this grand sprawling thing with special effects to blow your socks off... but it lost the heart of Luke's original journey.

No offense to any Star Wars fans, it's just the way I feel about stories. It's ALL about the stories.