Everyone Has a Story and It Starts with the Truth

Last month, I promised to write a short story using words of the year people sent me. I had three people respond for a total of five words.

• Create (x2)
• Redemption
• Conviction
• Community

TIME SLIP
The story I wrote took on a life of its own and became a time slip which is basically a story where someone travels through time. I’ve never written a time slip before. It intimidates me to write about history because research is a must. To help with that, I wrote about Eastport, Maryland. My office is located in Eastport, and I walk those streets all the time on my breaks and at lunch time.

I’ve read every historical marker along the way, so it was fun to include some of those facts in the story.

CREATE

My June gift to you is this story — CREATE, a short story about a girl who feels responsible for the death of her father and who discovers everyone has a story, and we each play a part in one another’s.

One thing I discovered while reviewing the words people sent me and thinking through the story is that we can create all kinds of things in our lives. Sometimes what we create is built on a lie. It could be a misunderstanding or a failure, and we’ve created a whole paradigm around it, one that says we aren’t worthy or we will never overcome. And then there are other times when we set out thinking we’re going to create one thing only to find what we actually built was something else entirely. That’s kind of what happened with this story. I followed where it led and ended up slipping back in time instead of focusing on the future. Yet somehow it works.

I want to send a special thank you to Tammie, David, and Teresa for sharing their words with me. May you find community, redemption, and conviction as you seek to CREATE! And thanks also to Liz, Julia, and Kendal for your helpful insights on the story! You rock!

And I hope you all enjoy the story. I would love to hear your thoughts!

If you want a PDF of the story, click Create.

Otherwise, you can read it on the web, just click CREATE.

Blessings and Peace to you!

Mary Beth