Destiny is all.
~ Uhtred, The Last Kingdom
“Dude, you should write a book,” Alex said.
“Yeah, like Eat, Pray, Love,” Louise added, eyes lighting up.
“But for men!” he exclaimed.
My high school buddy Alex and his new wife Louise spoke to me over the remains of our breakfast. Seven different juices, the colors of all the chakras, arced over the damage I had done to a made-to-order omelet, fresh fruit, and flat foreign pancakes only a Thai buffet can provide. I was crashing their honeymoon, but judging from his big goofy grin and her wide wondrous eyes, they didn’t seem to mind.
I had just finished telling them about the day before, the first day I had arrived on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand, where I quickly not only crashed their honeymoon but also my drone and rented moped. Still, the day before had been one of the best days of my life. The freedom I felt to fly my drone over the pristine coastline, to moped around the island to various beaches, and to chase rumored waterfalls using a map with limited GPS — it was everything I had dreamed of and more, even if it came at the cost of my drone and a bruise to my shin.
I had been traveling for six months, yet I hadn’t known the purpose of my wanderings. Like Elizabeth Gilbert in her bestselling memoir turned Julia Roberts movie, I had recently divorced, quit my job, and sold my home, all the while looking for something … else. And I needed someone … else to say the words that had been in my heart all along — to revive my dream from a deep slumber of shame and failure and lost nerve.
I had always wanted to write a book. I had begun several times. I had stopped just as many. Yet the idea to write this book had never felt so natural, so clear, so obvious, so… destiny-filled, as this one. A seed of courage had been planted in the soil of my shame by the affirming words of encouraging friends. What a gift to be nurtured. And I would need this courage to grow beyond my fear and succeed where I had previously faltered.
I looked back at them to see if they were serious about this book-writing idea. Louise had a way of staring through you wide-eyed: not as though you weren’t there, but as if she was seeing the myriad of possibilities you could be. Alex was always breaking into a smile, like he couldn’t wait to let you in on one of his jokes. Their infectious energy filled my heart, and I, too, got wide-eyed and smiley, before taking a deep breath and exhaling. I looked out over the ocean and squinted into the late afternoon sun. I could not see beneath the surface or beyond the horizon, but I knew somewhere out there was “the” something else I had been searching for: a book of my own.
“Maybe I will,” I said, knowing deep down that is exactly what I wanted to do.
“Haha, you should!” Alex reached over and slapped me on the back. Then looking at Louise, added, “And we want to read it.” After locking eyes with him, she turned to me and nodded with a slight smirk, as if she had already seen it happen in her mind’s eye.
“Well, it’s not written yet!” I laughed, looking back out over the ocean and wondering how long I would have to wait before I tasted the fruit of destiny. There would be a lot of hard work before the harvest. But for now, the sun was still shining, and a new adventure awaited on the beach below.
You are such a gifted writer!! Heck yeah write that book man!! Someone somewhere is waiting to read it and heal
"On the beach below" suggests action, forward motion. I love it!