Friday, November 2, 2012

Ask Elnora--About "What if" and "If only."--Lenora Worth

Hello, beautiful bloggers. This will be short and sweet since Elnora is on the road and Internet service is iffy. Iffy. Now there's a word I've been thinking about all week. Life is iffy, isn't it? When we see flooded streets and subway tunnels in New York City, we know things can get iffy. When we see iconic places destroyed with a rush of water and wind, things can get iffy. When we see a loved one going through a life-changing illness, things can get iffy. That got me to thinking about the "what if's" and "if only's" of life. The If Only types tend to look back on their lives and wish they'd done things differently. If only I could go back to that night I had that major hissy fit and told off half the universe. If only I had really listened to my mother and not dated that loser. You get the picture. The What If people tend to be more positive and forward thinking. What if we climbed up on the water tower and threw water balloons at the mayor and the city council? What if a tall, dark stranger meets a young, pretty debutante and they fall in love? Or What if the girl who thinks she's not pretty meets the man who thinks no one can love him? If we mix up the If Only's and the What If's, we could get to the It's Okay's and the Let's Move On's. Isn't this pretty much how we write our books? Don't we move our characters out of the If Only stage and into the What If stage so that they can accept the It's Okay past and go on with the Let's Move On future. Let's discuss the iffy things in life, that is, if you'd like to!

6 comments:

  1. My sister is in the dark in NYC. But she is braving the aftermath with her husband of ONE year. She moved through every one of the stages you mentioned, opened her heart and voila.

    Did I mention she is in her 40s and never thought she would get married for the first time at this stage of the game?

    Sometimes, when real life stinks and we think we can only WRITE a happy ending, the happy endings show up anyway!

    Peace, Julie

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  2. Julie, what a wonderfully uplifting story! :-) Love those happy endings.

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  3. Lenora, fascinating insight. I definitely want to be a more What if...kind of person. Struggle with it, though. Too many if onlys...sigh! Have a lot to think about now.

    Julie, what a great reminder. Happy Endings are everywhere if we choose to believe.

    ~Renee~

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  4. Julie, love the story of your sister. My son-in-law's sister got married last year for the first time at age 42.

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  5. Lovely story, Julie. My editor found true love after 40. They'd know each other in high school and reconnected on facebook. Now they are happily married! I used to be more of an "if only" girl. But now I'm definitely a "What if" person. My big question to myself is always "What if I don't try? I'll never know. Then I'd wind up being an "if only" again!" It is beautiful here and in the low 80s.
    Thanks to everyone for the kind words. In an iffy world, one thing is solid. God knows our heart, whether we do or not. I think he leads us down the right paths, but we make some wrong turns. And maybe in the end, that happily-ever-after thing does come true. We have eternity :)

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  6. What if ‘ifs only’, ‘only ifs’ and ‘what ifs’ merged and thinking truly made it so? Would the past become our future and would we like what we would become if we chose to change from what we are to who we think we might then be? For every ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ there are a hundred more unseen ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ just beyond the horizon. It’s not about 'what if' or 'if only', it’s about owning our decisions.

    Anyway that’s what I think. Now, if only it makes sense. : )

    Vince

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