08 Jun Hurricaine

“The Hurricane” is my favorite movie, for a number of reasons. I support kindness, diversity, helping the underdog, and rooting for the one that just has no-one else in their corner. Look it up. Not many people know about this movie, very few people that I ask have seen it. But the reason that I love it the most is that it demonstrates something that I am so passionate about and has ironically changed my life. I do not recall when I saw the movie. It had to be sometime after 1996. But in the movie, a foster kid in Canada randomly finds a book at a book sale, and in the book, he finds his destiny. Watch the movie to see the rest. 

My point from here is that a book can find anyone and lead to another and another and another. I personally depend on a daily diet of positive, very important inspiration that sustains me. But I too found a book that did the same thing for me in 2016. 

I went on a vacation during a very rough time in my life. I read to escape and decided not to take the material with me. I thought I would let the condo library decide for me what I would be reading, that decision was the best one I could have made. 

The very first day, I found a book by James Rollins, autographed on the front cover which made it even more intriguing to me. I read the book in 12 hours, really annoyed that I had no more of his material with me. When I got home, I dug into his bio and discovered that he had encouraged new writers and was accessible to them. I thought what do I have to lose by writing a letter to him? 

I sent an email and within a week he responded with a few encouraging suggestions about starting a writing career. Of course, it took me a couple of years to work on the list he sent and life happened in those years, but within that book and because of his response, was born a dream. 

Today my life is completely different and better. Is it because of that book? All I know is that someone told a story about a man, a true story, they shared the story. I saw the story in a film. The boy in the film inspired me to continue to read and dream. 

I read books that lead to other books and to other dreams. My books and my dreams lead to obtaining college degrees, writing blog posts, and attending conferences and writers groups and discussions and developing more ideas.

The pen and the words are so powerful. They have the power to influence and to inspire change if used that way. Words can tell stories in a way that helps our children recover our legacy and help heal our land and unite us as people. Let’s encourage our children to read, to create, to dream, and to grow by continually experiencing and enjoying the power of books.