Drive By

Today has been a glorious and hot late summer day. Of course, most of the pools are closed and so we cool off by staying inside of our house, heading to the grocery store, and out to the shopping malls. On our way back from tracking down some much needed essentials (fruit, shampoo, and a birthday card, if you must know), I had what I call a drive by moment.

What is a drive by moment? Well, it means that I drive by something that makes me think. Sometimes it's a garage sale where a bunch of random little kid things sit, making me remember when all of my kids were much smaller. Other times it's an older person out for a walk, at a snail's pace, proving that it doesn't matter how fast you go, but that you are going. The drive by moments are, I'm convinced, life's way of making me notice everything around me.

Which happens to be a fantastic quality for writers.

Something I am trying to be.

Well I can't give you details, but today, I drove by something we take for granted here in the United States, something I normally don't think twice about. But today, something was different. The moment said item came into view, an idea popped into my head. An idea for a kids short story, or possibly a novel, depending on how much I can develop the thought.

I shut the car off, put the bags in the kitchen, and hurried to my computer. I opened up a new document and plunked a few words down, hoping that I wouldn't forget what I wanted to say. Could this be something? Could I possibly have another idea that might fester into something more? The more these ideas come into my brain the more I can believe that maybe, just maybe, my hobby here will become something permanent.

As usual, I'll keep you posted. And by the way, keep your eyes open for your own drive by moments. They might be very fruitful.

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