Not
Always Paradise
When she was just a
girl, she expected the world; But it flew away from her reach…
~from
Paradise by Coldplay
The opening line of this song sums up Loralee’s life
in Hearts
in Exile so very well. From a young age, what Loralee wanted most in
the world was to become a great healer, even greater than her mother, the High
Priestess Arianne. She worked hard to achieve that dream, and it was just
within her reach…before it all fell apart.
Loralee could have crumbled; she could have
succumbed to the depression of failure, never trying to succeed at anything
else again. Yet, she didn’t. In the midst of unforeseeable circumstances, she
rose to the challenge and made the most of life’s lemons. Instead of the next
great High Priestess of Leogard, Loralee became the Dragon Keeper to an entire
island filled with legendary creatures.
I so admire Loralee’s resilience. Even though she’s
fictional, we can all learn from her experience when our own dreams fall apart.
How?
First, she planned ahead. From the start, she knew
exactly how she would go about getting what she wanted. She weighed the risks,
considered who would be affected, and made intelligent (though sometimes risky)
decisions to meet her goals.
When those plans first started to fall apart, she
considered other options and set a different course so that her skills could
still be used and not wasted. Most importantly, when even THAT course of action
became impossible and she ended up in exile, she learned to adapt to the
situation and make the most of it.
We’ll never be able to achieve absolutely everything
we set out to do, but there’s no reason we can’t learn from our disappointments
and set a new course. Think about the skills you have and the experience you’ve
gathered over the years, and when plans fall apart, use your knowledge to make
the most of what’s available. Maybe you didn’t get that promotion you wanted,
but there’s no reason you can’t maximize your performance in your current job until
a new opportunity comes along. Maybe a relationship crumbled. Use the time
alone to work on getting in touch with yourself, so that when and if a new
person comes along, you’ll know more about what you want and don’t want.
Yes, those dreams of ours may fly away from our
reach, but look around you and make the most of what you have. You never
know—an even better dream may land right in your arms.
Author Bio
Mysti Parker (pseudonym) is a full time wife, mother
of three, and a writer. Her first novel, A Ranger's Tale was published in
January, 2011 by Melange Books, and the second in the fantasy romance series,
Serenya's Song, was published in April 2012. The highly anticipated third book,
Hearts in Exile, has already received some great reviews. The Tallenmere
series has been likened
to Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' series, but is
probably closer to a spicy cross between Tolkien and Mercedes Lackey.
Mysti's other writings have appeared in the
anthologies Hearts of Tomorrow, Christmas Lites, and Christmas Lites II. Her
flash fiction has appeared on the online magazine EveryDayFiction. She has also
served as a class mentor in Writers Village University's six week free course,
F2K.
Mysti reviews books for SQ Magazine, an online
specfic publication, and is the proud owner of Unwritten, a blog voted #3 for
eCollegeFinder's Top Writing Blogs award. She resides in Buckner, KY with her
husband and three children.
