I wish I had known . . .
Response by Muriel Ellis:
I don’t think I would really want to have known what my life would bring. Of course, I wish I’d done some things differently, made more time for the family I loved. I wish I hadn’t abandoned writing for so many years, over and over again.
I certainly wish I’d known when I heard the grim news “malignant,” when it applied to lungs that it did not mean horrendous surgery with scant hope of recovery.
And I wish that, before I knew all would be well, that I had actually written all those letters of accumulated love and wisdom that I planned to leave for my family—maybe even a page or two for assorted nieces and nephews and their offspring. Well, I didn’t. And, yes, I know it’s not too late, but that’s another story.
Life is full of “what ifs?”
It’s a delightful waste of time to ponder. Never mind the personal—the turmoil of the past few months reminds me of the heady days when my daughter’s generation took to the streets with protest marches They brought change just as the freedom Riders changed the face of the South.
What if they’d all stayed home muttering their discontent?
It’s turmoil time again. I stayed placidly on the sidelines in the sixties and seventies for the sake of peace in my own house. I sympathized, but . . .
Not this time.
A wheelchair handed down to me when my sister-in-law died served as a walker and a much needed place to sit through a lot of singing and speeches when I joined that merry creative crowd in small town Ukiah to protest on a Saturday in January, 2018.
I just know that I needed for once in my life to be a part of something I believed in.
“What I wish I had known” by Muriel Ellis in “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections.”
Writing Prompts:
What I wish I had known.
Or: Not this time.
The anthology, “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections” is not for writers only.
The short vignettes are entertaining and some are thought-full. Like this one, by Muriel.
“Connections” could be a “just because” gift that might inspire writing.
“The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections” is available from your local bookseller and from Amazon (both ereader and print).
