THE POWER OF STORY!

On writing, and publishing, a novel of ideas – particularly one with Spiritual underpinnings:

It’s been three months since I posted my initial thoughts. I ended my last post with the questions: A novel of ideas? Spiritual underpinnings? The why and wherefore. And, what does it mean to tell a good story?

A novel of ideas – why not? If there has ever been a time that was calling us to explore new ideas, that time is now. As I sit here, on September 16th, in the sweltering heat of a California beach city – a city that’s been experiencing abnormally high temperatures for an extended period of time, where the cool breezes of the Pacific Ocean should be wafting through my open windows, but aren’t – I cannot escape the certainty of Global Warming. And with it comes the sure knowledge that we, as a species, need to re-think many things. We’ve all read endless tomes on the subject – so why do so many feel sense of paralysis and inevitability?

I think it’s because we don’t have enough really good models about how to change. Many of us “get” that to create change in our outer world we need to make a shift on the inner realms of imagination. We need a new personal and collective mythology – one that engages us in such a way that we become empowered to show up as the heroes and heroines the world is hungering for. This has always been the power of story – going all the way back to the time when our tribal ancestors sat around the fire sharing their creation myths to inspire courage.

It’s now time to write the new versions of those ancient stories – and be swift about it lest we lose our will! The stories we need now are not just for our tribe – but for our race, the Human Race and we have a new campfire, the world-wide-web. Not everyone will write a novel. Some might write a short story, a poem, a blog, a song or…? It’s the sharing of new ideas – new stories – that can affect our personal and collective life that matters most.

In my case, it was just this sort of thought that gave birth to my book, The Keeper Of The Diary. My heroine, Cassie, starts out like most of us – concerned with the challenges of everyday life. She wants to make a living at her chosen profession, photography – in her case, as a fashion photographer. She also laments, and wishes to improve upon, her destructive relationship patterns . The one thing that never enters her mind was how is she might save the world.

However at the beginning of the story, she has hit a wall – nothing in her life is going as planned. Under financial pressure she takes an assignment in Egypt, an assignment she would never have taken if her life was working. In that moment, she steps out of her comfort zone – leaves her ordinary world and, without being aware of it opens herself to new possibilities. What she soon discovers is that, like a modern-day Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz, she is no longer in Kansas.

On Cassie’s second day in Egypt a mysterious diary turns up in her camera case. The diary exposes her to ideas that are totally foreign – and initially threatening, as they challenge all of her beliefs about life. At this point we enter onto a journey with her as she at first resists the new input, then slowly begins to question – everything. This deep questioning starts to change her at a core level and new vistas open up – for her and for us. Without giving away the entire plot line, let me just say that she discovers gifts, talents and strengths she never imagined she had. In truth, we all have abilities we’re not fully in touch with. Generally we don’t discover them until, like Cassie, life pushes us to our edge. Challenging times catapult us into a new zone of creativity – and that’s the good news! In Cassie’s case, she becomes empowered to take on “dark forces” – as we all must do, both inside and outside of ourselves, if we are to become leaders and benefactors – both small and large – of this Human Race!

I hope you will check out The Keeper Of The Diary Book – watch the videos and please share your comments and thoughts, on this idea of “Story,” – and perhaps some of your stories of challenge and change, as well.

Judith Diana Winston is a visionary artist, writer, speaker and Life Mentor.  She is the author of the underground classic book: Meditative Magic, The Pleiadean Glyphs, an inspired collection of consciousness-altering symbols, as well as her new book, The Keeper Of The Diary – A Mythic and Mystical Spiritual Adventure Story – with a message for our times.