By Clara Hamel
Flipping through the towering stack of books in my office that I feel an ever burgeoning sense of obligation to read, I came across a line I couldn’t shake: “You are the Author of Your Life.”
I couldn’t get this line out of my head, and it continued to gnaw at me on my way home. It seemed a glib and reductive expression given so many would not write bereavement, illness and struggle into their story. The truth is we are not the author of our lives. We do not get to control the beginning of our story or many of the plot lines. If we were the authors, I imagine there would be a suspicious number of independently wealthy people who can eat anything they want and maintain perfect health, as well as a wildly disproportionate number of “just rolled out of bed” looking-superb people walking around.
No one would ever be Googling symptoms at 2 a.m., and nobody would be tossing and turning over what they said or didn’t say in a conversation. We would have all the social graces and our lives would likely reflect a series of Instagram-worthy moments strung together in a story that is a little too neat to be real.
Life would be absolute perfection.
But the problem with perfection is that it is just that — perfect. When something is perfect, there is not room for growth nor is there any drive to become more than what is. It is intrinsically stagnant.
So, no — we are not the author of our stories. But maybe we are something better — the narrator.
The narrator is arguably the most vital role in the interpretation of any storyline. They get to control the tone, the inflection and the lens through which the entire story is viewed. When these things change, the story changes; one could have the same events with completely different texture and meaning. Is it a chapter where everything falls apart or a chapter that is laying the foundation for something new.
A good narrator won’t skip over the negative bits of a story, but will weave them into a nuanced and layered narrative that gives them meaning. They offer glimpses of light within the darkness, tying each thread together and reminding you that the story is still unfolding.
So, narrate your life well, searching for meaning and purpose in every plotline. In a story told with skill, hope lingers in the valleys, humility rises in the peaks and grace threads its way through all that lies between.
**Dr. Justin Hamel and Clara Hamel have a combined over 30 years of experience in health fields. Reach them at 1° Performance & Longevity, located at 46 N. Central Park Plz., Suite 101, in Jacksonville, on Facebook or by phone at 217-243-6358.
