September 20, 2018 – September’s Writing Group assignment

Writing assignment:  Go to your bookshelf – select any book, and take the first full sentence off page 100 as your writing prompt.

The book I grabbed: A Great thought a day – 365 quotes to inspire you all year long.

Page 100: “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.”

                                                              - Albert Einstein

          I know I am fortunate to have a vivid imagination.  I can imagine an empty house decorated with my possession, or quality fabric turned into an ensemble, or the construction and planting of a lush garden.  It is all clear in my mind. 

As a teenager, I and my friend, Lorri Ross, strolled the half-mile serpentine country road between our homes as I would make up stories and share them with her, often twisting them to meet her requests for characters, or location, or situations.  They were our ‘spoken romance and adventure novels’ that enchanted us as the stories were bent toward the heroines – our alter egos.

          My imagination is a private treasurer to manipulate when I am often alone. It has flourished through years of commuting to and from work or swimming laps. But, especially when sitting quietly in my gardens weeding, where I let my imagination run unchecked.

          What is especially nice is that no one can take them away, no one can even peer into my head as they are my secret thoughts and no one can edit them.  If a scene’s outcome doesn’t go the way I want it, I can re-wind it in my head and create another ending.  I have several “pet” stories that I have re-wound and re-edited for years. To mention a few - the Island girl, the Dutch lover, or the sleuthing gardener.

          But, back to the quotation, my imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions.  Is my imagination a fortune teller’s forecast of my future life?  It could easily be my writing career as I have ample rough drafts of stories tucked here and there.  Or, more recently my dabbling with the idea of Quail Thicket nursery where my imagination sees me potting up divisions of perennials and rooted cuttings. 

Either way, my imagination prompted me to buy the writer’s software, Scrivener’s and order 800 pots or liners as they call them in the industry, which sure sounds like a preview of my life’s coming events.

          Again, if imagination is a preview of life’s coming events, is that the same as a dream or a goal for the future. Can it take the place of a traditional business plan or book outline on paper in black and white.  I’ve had this resplendent imagination my entire life and I still can’t decipher if these flashing and fleeting images are a game plan of a future goal, or merely keep me pleasant company, where this heroine always seems to win?