Prisms and Pages

Photo credit: Benjamin Raffetseder – Unsplash

I love to read – like really love to read.

… as in I always have a book on the nightstand, usually setting atop several “backup books”... of which there are currently 3.

I never thought I’d be a “backup book” person. In my rebellious years, 1 book was 1 book too many, and was usually replaced by the movie version of the story if at all possible. I would roll my eyes at the sight of the ever-growing pile of backup books in my dad’s home office – always topped with a half-finished book and a crisp bookmark nestled in it.

Now I’ve got the backup book pile and the pages have turned – now my eyes light up when I see my backup book pile, eager with anticipation of the next adventure that awaits. All of this while my husband laughs and shakes his head every time the backup book pile grows precariously high and begins to lean, constantly threatening to send the nightstand lamp and ever-present glass of water toppling over like a line of dominoes.

But I’ve grown to accept it – the presence of backup books and the amount of time I spend living these stories in my mind’s eye. Let’s face it – based on my family history and my dad’s relentless pursuit of novel after novel for my whole entire life thus far, I think it’s pretty darn safe to say I’m in this whole “reading” thing and backup book dance for the long haul.

So tonight, as I was adding to my pile of backup books, rearranging them in the ideal order (rom com, mystery, southern fiction, and thriller – trust me, I have a very strategic ordering system perfected over time, from which I only very rarely deviate), I got to thinking about what makes a good book, you know, good.

… as in memorable, thought-provoking, and unputdownable good.

And I think I figured it out.

In fact, I think it’s the same thing that makes life itself so precious, intriguing, and rich with meaning.

The pages don’t simply go in order – I mean, of course the pages go in order, but the storyline isn’t linear. It bends, it curves, it foreshadows, and it loops back, enriching our view of the whole story when we reminisce further on down the line.

Sure, one page comes right after the other – chapter after chapter – slowly unraveling the storyline while the plot continues to thicken. But there’s twists and turns, zigs and zags, and little hints and tiny seeds that are planted well before we even think to look for them.

Eventually, all the pieces fall in place together. Eventually, everything comes full circle.

Often times we are so focused on the immediate words on the page – the scene playing out in front of us in our mind’s eye – that we forget the multitude of things developing out of sight, behind the stage curtain and out of scene, in the rest of the storyline’s universe.

Isn’t it this way with our lives too?

We often think of life in chapters – childhood, high school, college, finding your “person,” marrying your soul mate, growing your family, embarking on a new adventure, first job, next job, buying your first house, seasons of storms, seasons of sunshine and butterflies, and so on and so on, comprising the storybook that is life.

But it’s not that simple.

We don’t just turn the page of the chapter and start the next, as if floating on a continuous stream that moves us in one direction only, with a change of chapter and scenery when the curve bends or as the waterfall approaches.

There’s more than just a running current throughout our lives, carrying us page to page, scene to scene, chapter to chapter – No, it’s much more complex than that.

A chapter that appears challenging and exhausting at first glance just may be a turning point on a life path when viewed from a new perspective, often from a few (or several) chapters ahead or from someone else’s vantage point.

Don’t believe me?

See chapter titled, “College student doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, so she takes a zillion classes to cover all her bases and finds herself settling in (yet again) for an evening in the library stacks cramming for the fifth exam that week, only to find herself greeted by a stack of 17 textbooks on the only open desk, all 17 of which have ‘neuropsychology’ in their title, none of which are hers, none of which relate to the exam she’s studying for, yet all of which grab her attention since not even an hour ago she had been dabbling with the idea of looking into it as a career.”

And so the initial moments of a new adventure began to unwind…

… Also see future chapters titled, “Girl becomes a Texan and goes to graduate school,” “First job,” “Second job,” and several references throughout chapters such as, “Getting married the same week as defending your thesis,” “Moving cross-country again, and again, and again, and (yes) again – 3 of 4 times which led to sheltering from tornadoes in the middle of Oklahoma at gas stations, a tiny roadside casino, and outside a motel ready to make a mad dash inside if needed, and all 4 of which related to relocating for (yep, you guessed it) a career in neuropsychology.”

Need more convincing?

See chapter titled, “Celebrating holidays with your future in-laws, when y’all find an old video of your future husband’s basketball game against your own alma mater, at least 7 years prior (and way before you ever met), when you see yourself and your future husband, both in the video frame, not even 3 feet away from one another, completely unaware of the significance of the moment.”

How’s that for foreshadowing in the story of life? For all you rom com fans – Is it a “meet-cute” if you aren’t aware you even met until years later? Hmmm…

My point is, just like the pages and chapters of the books on my nightstand appear on the surface to carry out their storylines word-by-word and moment-by-moment, there’s always more to the story.

The stuff behind the scenes…

The foreshadowed details…

The wise words that we didn’t know we would later hold onto…

The events that at first appear to be mere happenstance or coincidence…

… all of which we view later through a different lens, appreciating their significance and relevance to the ever-evolving storyline.

Our life stories are the same in this way.

Sure, we can think of our lives as a series of distinct chapters, and our days as the pages that form them – but that doesn’t leave much room to consider the richness and wonder of the intricately woven tapestry that is our life story.

What if we viewed those pages with prisms – shining reflective light from endless angles, uncovering details and threads we had never before seen? We would see multiple perspectives that evolve as we grow, revealing the delicate details in all their glory – allowing us to appreciate the magnificent creativity of the story, the multidimensionality of the characters, and the labyrinth of unexpected plot twists and turns that all unfold in their own time – as we see firsthand the serendipity of how the threads seamlessly come together.

So, whatever chapter you’re in today, I urge you to zoom out.

Look at the pages through a prism – seeing the rich dimensions of your story through the reflective light of new perspectives. See the beauty of what led you here, where this storyline is taking you, what exciting adventure may await in the next chapter (or even on the next page!), and what treasured nuggets of wisdom you can take with you when the page turns.