Focusing on the Smaller But More Important Things in Life

In my last post I said:

What am I going to do next? What are my plans? What’s ahead for me? Someone at the Canberra unschooling meeting wanted to know what I’d like to do now that I’ve published my unschooling books. Will I write more books? Perhaps I’ll take up a new challenge?

I now know the answer: I’m going to finish editing my third children’s novel, The Angels of Convict Way. You might have heard me talking about this book. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo several years ago. Since then it’s been waiting on my computer for me to finish and publish it. Many times, I have said, “I must finish the next book in my Angels series.” But somehow I haven’t done this. There is always something else claiming my attention. Bigger things.

I’ve been thinking about the bigger things in life. Should we chase after them? Surely we should do the things that will have the most impact? Isn’t that the best way to use our talents? Record podcasts rather than write blog posts because they reach a bigger audience. Write Instagram captions instead of longer articles because more people use social media than blogs. Write unschooling books instead of children’s novels because unschooling is a hot topic and gentle Catholic family stories aren’t. Focus on followers and likes and book sales so I can spread the unschooling message as far as possible instead of doing things for the people that I love the most.

No, the smaller things in life are important. That’s why I’m going to be spending lots of time over the next few weeks working on my third Angels novel. I’m writing it for my Goddaughter Elizabeth. It’s also for my dear friend San and her family. I’d love to share it with more people, but if no one is interested, that’s okay. This isn’t about numbers. It’s about love.

If you’ve read my Angels novels, The Angels of Abbey Creek and The Angels of Gum Tree Road, you’ll know that they are about a Catholic family living in a village on the edge of the beautiful Australian bush. Does that sound familiar? Could the Angels be the Elvis family in disguise? Sort of. We’re not exactly the same, but I have incorporated a lot of real stories within my fictional ones. Many of the Angels’ adventures happened to us first.

But are our lives worth writing about? Are they interesting enough to be turned into fiction? Well, on the surface, it might seem like nothing exciting happens around here. We look like a rather ordinary family. We do the usual things. But appearances are deceiving!

Our lives are crammed full of extraordinary ordinary moments. So are yours. But do we realise that? Do we take the time to appreciate and enjoy what we have? Or are we always rushing from one thing to another, chasing something bigger and better? Is our attention turned towards the wrong things?

I wonder: should we be focusing on the smaller but more important things in life?

Something Extra

If you’d like to know more about my children’s novels, here’s something that I wrote a while ago for a now extinct blog:

I write stories for children. (I write a lot of other things too!) They’re set in the world I live in. My Goddaughter lives in a world just like mine.

I mention my Goddaughter because she’s a very important part of my writing story. If it weren’t for Elizabeth, I probably never would have written my children’s novels.

It all began when Elizabeth’s mother said something like, “Sue, you should write a story for children.”

Now I knew how to write interesting letters to children. At least, Elizabeth thought my letters were pretty good. But stories? I didn’t think I could do it so I said, “I can’t write fiction.” And that might have been the end of it, except I couldn’t get Elizabeth’s mother’s words out of my head. Around and around they went until one day I announced, “I’m going to write a story. It might be awful, but what if it’s not? I won’t know until I try.”

So I tried. I opened up my computer and began. I found myself in charge of lots of characters. I chose their names and decided what they were going to do. It was a lot of fun. When I’d typed the last word, I was very excited. I couldn’t wait to share what I’d written. I shouted, “Hey girls, do you want to listen to my story?” Of course, my daughters did, and so I read it out loud. “Well, do you like it?” I asked. They did! There was just one problem: perhaps they liked it because I’m their mother and not because it was good. I needed another opinion. And I knew just the person to ask: Father James Tierney.

Father Tierney is a priest, an author, and my friend. He knows all about children’s fiction because he’s the author of the very successful Bush Boys books. I decided to fax my story to Father Jim. Perhaps he’d read it and then give me some feedback.

After my story had disappeared down the phone line, I paced up and down, thinking, “Will Father like my story?” I didn’t have to wait long to find out. A few minutes later, I received the words: “Write some more!” So I did. I wrote story after story. (I did a lot of rewriting too.) I wrote enough stories to fill a book.

And that book is called The Angels of Abbey Creek.

If you look in the front of the book, you’ll see the words:

For My Goddaughter Elizabeth.

Now you know why Elizabeth is an important part of my writing story.

I decided I would set my stories in Elizabeth’s world. I wanted her to read about familiar places and events and children who might be a bit like her. I happen to know Elizabeth’s world very well. I live in it too!

So what’s our world like? Well, we both live in Australia. We know all about enjoying life with lots of brothers and sisters. We celebrate birthdays, go on picnics, visit the beach and do lots of other things families around the world like doing. We know all about hunting for the perfect First Holy Communion dress, how wonderful it is to have three mothers, and how exciting it is to go out in the middle of the night to attend Midnight Mass. We’ve seen bounding kangaroos, strolled under shady gum trees, woken up to the sound of chuckling kookaburras, and admired the beauty of golden wattle flowers.

My novel The Angels of Abbey Creek is set in a village nestled among the gum trees. I know this place very well because I live there. Of course, I changed the name of the village before I put it in my book, but all the details belong to a real place: my home.

I love writing about things I know about. I often take an event that has really happened and turn it into a story to share with other people.

“Did that really happen, Auntie Sue?”

“It’s mostly true,” I say. “I just sprinkled in some imagination.”

Is the Angel family really the Elvis family? Yes and no. None of the characters corresponds directly to anyone in my family, but I did have fun making them just a little bit like us!

Photos

An extraordinary moment in Gemma-Rose’s life: my youngest daughter had 20 inches of her 32-inch long hair cut off! We normally work in centimetres here in Australia, but Gemma-Rose’s hair was measured in inches because she wanted to make sure that her hair was long enough to donate to Wigs for Kids. It was. They require 12 inches of hair so Gemma-Rose had more than enough!

So Gemma-Rose’s hair is on its way to the US where it will be turned into a wig. Hopefully, it will make a difference.

Now the big question is this: can I turn this moment in our lives into a fictional Angels story? Who could decide to have her hair cut? Kate? How would Mum feel? A bit sad? But would she be proud as well? And excited? Just like Kate?

So, do you ever lose sight of the smaller most important things in life? Do you turn family events into stories? And have you ever grown your hair very long? Perhaps it’s a brave decision to cut long hair off!