A Blossoming Dream

Magnolia's aren't supposed to bloom in February but obviously no one told my little magnolia tree this small fact.  With warm winter weather its nature told it Spring had sprung and so it blossomed.

More importantly than this bit of trivial trivia is the fact that for the past few months I've been deep in contemplation.  I've been reevaluating myself, my life, my priorities ... what I want to do, what I want to accomplish.  Though I've come up with a few answers many questions still remain.

Perhaps in my heart, I knew all along I had to follow my dream no matter where it led me.  Perhaps I will simply find myself faced with a dead end street, but I'll never know unless I try.

For the past several days I've been working on a story ... a wanna be novel.    At times the story pours out of me so fast and furious I can scarcely keep up with it.  At other times I pause and wonder in what direction it will go next.

My story is far from finish and is yet in stages of rough draft.  It will need lots of fine tuning and rewriting.

Below ... for those of you who enjoy reading ... is a very small excerpt from one page of one chapter and admittedly not the most noteworthy.  I would love to hear your opinions so your comments are truly welcomed and encouraged :

Peppertree

Lora Leigh stared at the face in the mirror.  It hadn't changed much, perhaps more tired  with signs of discontent but it was still an attractive face.  Youthful enough for a 32 year old, smooth firm skin no visible wrinkles.  A pretty face graced with large turquoise blue eyes, a well defined lip and high cheek bones all framed by dark, chocolate brown hair.  She ran her fingers through her hair.  No signs of gray ... yet.  "Two years" she told herself " hard to believe it's been that long".  Today was her 32nd birthday  and the two year anniversary of her divorce from Matthew Tabor. 

It had been an amicable divorce based upon a terminology called incompatibility.  Who had initiated the divorce was debatable.  Perhaps it was Lora Leigh who had become bored with being home alone most of the time, while her CEO husband jetted off to corporate meetings in faraway lands.  Maybe Matthew had grown tired of the silence with little to discuss between them.  Dividing their assets seemed as simple as children dividing their haul of Halloween treats ... I'll let you have the Reese's peanut butter cups if I can have the Butterfingers bars.  So it was; you can have the BMW, I'll take the Mercedes. 

Lora Leigh wondered if they had ever had anything in common.  Maybe ... at the start ... at least it seemed that they had.  Had they somehow, over the years, changed... one of them ... both of them ... became different ?   

She took a last swipe of mascara across her lashes, applied a small amount of lip gloss and looked again at that familiar yet vaguely strange face peering back at her.   Today was a new day, a new beginning.  It had taken almost 2 years but the large house that she and Matthew owned had been sold,  much of the furniture had been auctioned off as neither she nor Matthew had any desire to keep any of it.  The furniture had been another matter of contention.   Lora Leigh had never liked it, it felt  too grand and pretentious for her taste.   It was Matthew's style, or so she had thought but then Matthew said there was none of it that he wanted.  Perhaps they never truly knew one another after all?   

 Matthew had collected his personal effects almost 2 years earlier,  all that remained now were a few cardboard boxes scattered throughout the house in neat little piles.  These belonged to Lora Leigh, the remnants of her life of having been Mrs. Matthew Tabor.  Soon these too would be gone, picked up by the movers and taken to her small condo.  Only the house, a shell of what used to be their home, would remain behind. Empty rooms filled with broken promises, dashed hopes and dreams unfulfilled.