Day 3: Didn’t see that one coming

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Day 3:  Didn’t see that one coming

Day 3:  I wake up to find an email from an incredibly talented writer friend in my inbox. My heart pumps a little faster at just seeing her name. She graciously agreed to participate in and lend her abundant gifts to my experiment and she is currently writing a screenplay for it.  I am expecting to hear from her but I’m not sure when because of the holidays.  Today is apparently the day. The subject is “update” so I presume she is filling me in on her progress and to coordinate a time and place to meet on January 14th, the date we’d decided she’d deliver a first draft.  Embarrassingly excited, I quickly double click.  To my absolute shock, the note immediately takes an unexpected turn:  an unforeseen family tragedy has occurred over the holidays.  I will not go into the details because they are not mine to share, but, so you understand the gravity of the update, I instantly threw the contract deadline out the window due to force majeur.

Out the window

Needless to say, the news influenced the breakfast table topic and phrases such as, “you just never know,” “my god, how awful,” “so thankful,” and “we have to appreciate life,” were passed back and forth more than the maple syrup over the gluten free pancakes.  The news unsettles me not because of the delivery delay of the script or that development is pushed but because my friend has experienced a loss and, it is yet another harsh reminder of how delicate life is.  It strikes me that we are now creating from an altered state.  What we have to create from, the intangibles anyway–our emotional state, our spirit, our heart energy–is forever changed.  Obviously, in a much more direct, tangible way for her, but she is an integral part of the experiment and she is my friend, so what I have to create from with her has now shifted as well.

My take away so far today is that even though the “out of your control” change is mind boggling, it has to be added to the pile of “what we have to create from,” because if we don’t use it for our future good, it’ll simply destroy our present. This notion should not feel like an epiphany to me but for some reason it does.  What I have to create from today will either dramatically or subtley be different tomorrow.  Just like our bank balance, health, emotions, number of friends on Facebook, what and who we have in our lives to create from is always in flux, always expanding, contracting, like life itself.  What we have to create from is always changing—for better or worse.

On a “better” note, although it’s not official until after we have a meeting to iron out the details and schedule, a ridiculously talented editor who has worked with my partner before and has helped us out in the past with a few pieces here and there for the doc and who believes in the project, is willing to officially get on board to finish the editing with us.  It looks like what I have to create from to complete my feature documentary is shifting as well.  How thankful and blessed am I that it has nothing to do with an act of God but me simply picking up the telephone?

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…the good, the bad and the ugly.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

1 Comment

  1. Love reading these posts, Kelli! Keep doing it.

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