My Mission Statement

I write to serve, to unite, to educate. I write to share literature and flesh out ideas that may be of interest to others. I write to document an emotion, experience, or a blip in time. My mission is to write in such a way that the reader is reminded that we can find humor in all situations. It's one of the great blessings of life.


Friday, October 2, 2009

Your Life as a Fable

I do writing exercises from a series of books just to stretch my brain every day. Today's exercise was just interesting enough, I thought I'd share it with you. You might have fun stretching your brain in the same way today. It would also be a great activity to do with your kids at the dinner table or at bedtime.

My Life as a Fable (btw--I have to be an animal)

Once upon a time there was a soft, white rabbit named Esther. She lived in a cozy neighborhood with lots of other rabbits in a cozy home with her husband rabbit and four baby rabbits. She spent all day bouncing around from one thing to another. Sometimes she hopped her babies to rabbit school. Some days she bounced her babies to rabbit church. Some days she jumped around her cozy rabbit home to clean up and cook for her family. She was a happy rabbit and very grateful for her cozy little life. Except for one little thing.

Esther had a dream. A dream that was big. As a matter of fact, Esther's dream was so big that sometimes she was afraid to share it. No one in her cozy little neighborhood or her sweet family would understand this very big dream. Not yet, anyway. But Esther believed in her dream, so she began to carve out a little time here and a little time there. She stayed up late and got up early, all to pursue her dream. See, Esther knew that there was more to a dream than just dreaming. She knew she had to work.

Esther's babies asked her, "Mommy, what are you doing?"
She always answered,"I'm writing a story for little bunnies like you."
They liked her stories, but sometimes they tired of hearing the same one over and over while she worked to make it perfect.

Then one day Esther began to send her stories out into the world. It almost felt like she was sending her babies out to strangers. Would the recipients love her babies as much as she did? Would they see the potential in the imperfection?

At first Esther heard nothing. For a long time, she just kept writing and working and taking care of her family and waiting and waiting. Then she began to get a lot of sad letters in the mail. They didn't even have her name on them, they were just a little slip of paper with something like, "No, thank you." Her babies thought these letters were mean.

But Esther didn't give up. She tried to learn from these letters. She wrote and wrote some more. She tossed some of her early stories and discovered her new ones were better. All the hard work WAS helping her improve. That made her want to work harder and harder.

Sometimes her husband bunny just shook his head. Why did she work so hard? She had a cozy home and four sweet babies? Now her babies were getting older, and Esther was hopping around more than ever. Sometimes she hopped from soccer game to soccer game. She bounced on field trips and jumped from school to school helping students with their writing.

Her own writing time was a little harder to find, but she persevered in spite of her busy schedule and sad letters. The four sweet babies didn't understand why no one liked their mommy's stories. But they didn't give up either.

Then one day Esther received a nice letter from an editor. It told her that her writing was good, but she should think about a few things to make it even better. The next day, Esther received another nice letter from an editor. This one said her story was good but they already had a book kind of like it. Another editor wrote her and asked if she could see more of Esther's writing. Esther began to get very excited, but she knew her dream was far from a reality.

TO BE CONTINUED

Have a great week-end, and think of your life as a fable. What does your happy ending look like? What animal are you?

P.S. Get a glimpse of my story in this month's SHINE BRIGHTLY magazine by going to www.gemsgc.org/girls/shine_brightly/story.html. (Cut and paste the address)

2 comments:

Dorothy said...

Donna, congratulations! That's wonderful. I wish they'd shown it all. The funny thing is, the illustration favors Haley. I guess artist used a photo you supplied?

Donna Koppelman said...

No, actually, but isn't she cute? Thanks for reading.


Isabel by Donna Jones Koppelman

Isabel by Donna Jones Koppelman

Major Bear at the Grove Park Inn by Donna Jones Koppelman

Major Bear at the Grove Park Inn by Donna Jones Koppelman