A call for better stories

It’s funny how a certain book can come along at a certain time and you just think, “Wow … I was meant to read these words right now in my life.” That’s the way I felt as I raced through Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years.

Miller is one of my favorite authors. A few years ago, when I read his book, Blue Like Jazz, I finished memesrized. Like, Who was this guy? ‘Cause no one — no other author I’d read — had captured his thoughts (thoughts that were so like my thoughts) about spirituality and a relationship with God and Jesus the way Don had. He’s real. And funny. And real. And sarcastic. And oh yeah…did I mention real? Yep, no fake, “I’m better than you” haughtiness from this guy.

With Don’s new book, he mines the story of … well, your life as a story. As Don writes, if we aren’t careful, we’ll look back on our life and not remember half of it. Because a lot of the times we don’t create for ourselves the type of stories that make it memorable. We’re too comfortable in our routine. Too afraid to say yes to something new, something we’re afraid of.

It was a perfect narrative for me to read during a year in which I believe I’ve lived more stories — better stories — than at any other point in my life. Starting my photography business has been a BIG story and my character shaped tremendously in the process. And maybe it’s because I dared to take that plunge that I felt more alive and exuberant and willing to make other, more memorable scenes in my life as result.

Here were some of my favorites in 2009 and here’s to all of us creating even better stories for ourselves in the new year. Like Don says, all you have to do is try.

• Sipping wine and talking into the wee hours of the night with dear friends during a sleepover that involved air mattresses, iPhones and lots and lots of giggles.
• Driving home after a wedding I photographed and feeling so happy I was high. Because I felt confident I’d nailed it. And I was high enough to sing along Jerry Maguire-style when Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” popped up on my iPod.
• Feeling one with 25,000 people who felt the exact same way I did at the exact same moment while confetti reigned down on us as one of my favorite bands performed one of my favorite songs.
• Spontaneously deciding to grab a blanket one night and watch a meteor shower in a field by the reservoir with my husband.
• Not-so-spontaneously but oh-so-worthily dragging our sleep-deprived behinds out of bed to take a horse-drawn, sunset tour of Charleston with a memorable tour guide who possessed one heck of a Southern draw.
• Greeting the California sunrise from atop a lifeguard station with a Starbucks in one hand, a camera in the other and a good friend to keep me company.
• Sitting with glasses of wine with my book club friends, sharing a meal and the kind of conversation that would have carried into the wee hours of the morning if the owners would have let it.

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Friend Gail on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.