Aeon Igni

Tara Rane has written another powerful blog which provokes several thoughts of my own, entitled: “There is always more than one right answer.” In her blog, she discusses how she solves her problems in a way that is right for her.

For Authors

The blog post reminded me of a saying I heard at an author class, something to the effect of “There are no new stories, only new voices to tell them.” The speaker made the point that, especially in the romance genre, the story of a man and a woman falling in love has already been told a million times.

It doesn’t matter if he’s an aristocrat, highlander, pirate, cowboy, firefighter, navy SEAL, rock star, vampire, werewolf, or alien; or whether she’s feisty, funny, intelligent, strong, sarcastic, naive, vapid, a pushover, or any combination thereof; every pairing possible has probably already been done. Many times.

The only new thing about your story will be your perspective, your voice, and how you tell the tale. And that means that there is  always more than one right answer. There are literally unlimited right answers, as long as they are told in a way that will bring them to life in the minds of the readers.

For Life

But in honor of the New Year, where I really want to go with this post is the idea that there is always more than one right answer in anything you do. As with your writing, the only answer that is ‘right’ is the one that is right for you.

After ten years of traveling, living in five countries and visiting many, many more; I have found that people all over the world live lives that are completely different from each other. People from other cultures, or even from within their own culture, might try to judge them – but each of them is living the life that is right for him or her.

For myself, I returned home to find people who remained here and built their careers and families in Phoenix. While they may tell me they envy my adventures, I can tell them I envy their stability.

The point is that each path was ‘right’ for the person who was living it. Each path required a multitude of decision points along the way, and only we as individuals could make them…to choose the path that was right for us at the time.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every choice we make. The only thing that makes a choice correct is how we feel about it. Even the eventual outcome isn’t as important as the journey at hand…and measuring your life by outcome probably isn’t a very good strategic tactic, anyway. It just takes too damn long.

So, when you get the urge to compare yourself to all of your friends, or make resolutions which will make you richer, thinner, better dressed, or any other adjective of measurement that is set by someone else’s standard, just remember that there are a million ‘right’ answers – actually, there are over six billion ‘right’ answers living their own lives on this planet right now.

And you are already one of those right answers. Whatever you choose to do with 2015, I wish you all the best on continuing to create the path that is right for you.