Bedtime stories that shape who you are

What am I passionate about? You ask a good question. When I first read this challenge title, I felt an immense pressure, I thought, ‘well, I’m passionate about a lot of things’, sometimes I feel so much passion for things that I overwhelm myself (a little like I’m doing now). I know there are so many of you that feel the same as me, maybe even all of you feel the same way, that’s why we’re here after all, because we are all passionate about writing and making a difference in some way.

Regardless of your niche for writing, you write because there is no other choice for you. You write because the words come to you whether you are asking for them or not; I want to take a minute to tell you that I acknowledge your passion, your heart warming and sometimes heart-breaking passion.

To be a writer, most of us are big empaths, we feel others pain, and on the other side of the coin, we feel their joy, and we want to write about it, because some people can’t express their feelings with words, but we are lucky enough that we can. Today I have a day off, and my emotions are brewing like a thunderstorm: thunder, lightning, the works. So, I guess it’s as good a time as any to start this piece on passion. Today I am filled with passion, and some days the weather may be bleak, but that makes those special storms even more beautiful. So here we go.

There are multiple things I could write about in response to this question, this is something I am very grateful for, it’s important to have many passions, and to feel fulfilled by multiple things. Think of yourself as a fruit bowl or an eccentric painting, that needs an assortment of colour to fill us up.

Really, what I’d love to do, is create a time machine and travel back to different ages and relive my best moments, but unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. I haven’t yet woken up with magical powers like I always thought someday I would, and I’m not particularly good at science, so I had to find another way to relive my youthful bliss. I have found that creating, writing, and getting in touch with the side of me that always believed Pocahontas when she said something was coming just around the riverbend, helps me through my darkest days, and helps me help others through theirs.

Occasionally the insanity that is life, can grasp a hold of me and the waves take over, I’m soon lost at sea with emotions. My mental health is a boat fighting against the heavy waves to find the lighthouse. Sometimes, when that light is lost in the fog, I have to become my own lighthouse, which is quite fitting actually because my name is Lucille, which I was happy to discover translates to ‘the light’, and my light, is my writing.

There is a long running TV programme in the UK called ‘Seven Up’, this show follows the lives of a group of children, all from different backgrounds, from the age of seven. They regroup every seven years, so we can see what has changed with their lives as they grow into teenagers, adults, and eventually to starting a family of their own. In their first interview at seven, the children are asked what they want to do when they grow up, their answers differed, some seemed simple, some more ambitious, and some did stay true to their childhood dreams, although some, did not.

When I watched this, I thought about my answer when people asked my younger self what she wanted to be, my response was that I couldn’t be expected to pick just one thing, I knew my mind was too chaotic for that, I had too many ideas I thought to myself. I did know one thing for sure, however, I knew no matter what I did, my main goal was to be happy, and to make others happy, and if I could succeed in that, then surely, I would be a great success. I am not naïve enough, to think that I can solve the world’s problems, or perhaps it’s that I’m not ambitious enough, but I know I can make you smile.

When I was younger, I read a book that made me forget everything, every time I read a page from this book, I felt as though I lived inside. To me, when I was reading this book, I was taking every step with them, I felt every emotion they felt, and I genuinely believed that their magic was real, and I would experience it myself someday, maybe I still do.

When we were very young, my parents got my sisters and I a little swan that told bedtime stories, you simply put the tape in and pressed play. We listened to the same couple of stories repeatedly, but we loved it, because we were children and children are easily pleased (something we shamefully tend to grow out of).

As we got older, we grudgingly left the tapes behind and moved up to actual books. For a while, my sisters and I had a night-time tradition, before we would drift off to sleep and say goodbye to the day that now lay behind us, we would read together, it became something we looked forward to every night, and something that brought us together. In these moments, time stood still, a simple story can freeze time, which is really one of the greatest gifts of all when you think about it, savouring time should be at the top of all our lists, because when it goes, it’s gone.

I felt so much inspiration and undeniable spirit when reading these books as a child, I knew I wanted to create that exact feeling one day for children like me who were searching for something more. I wanted to believe that life could be an endless adventure, anticipating what enchanting thing could be coming my way next.

I realised that I want to be someone who writes that one special book that you read repeatedly because of how transcended it makes you feel. I want to be that worn and torn book that is read so much the pages are about to fall out. I want to be that story you read before bed because it makes you dream of only good things. I want to be something you read when you’re sad to stop you from feeling like you want to cry.

So, that’s what I did. In an ideal world, I would sell millions of copies of my stories. I would create shelves upon shelves of stories that children fall in love with, keep for years and eventually read to their own children. I would become a best-selling author and I would make a difference to many children’s lives, my books would become their favourite bedtime story and then their favourite movie. My first book, 'Grandma GG's Magic Soup Kitchen' would be found in every book store and children would wish their grandmother's were a little bit more like her. My book 'The Christmas Clock' would be the first book that comes out of storage when the festivities start and I would be one of the reasons it really began to look like Christmas.

I must believe that an ideal world is just around the corner, but for now, if even one person finds true happiness in one of my books, it will be worth it. Well, that’s what I must tell myself, because the need to be heard and to make a difference is too strong, the alternative isn’t an option for me.

If I were a cartoon and you looked through my ear to see what was going on in my head you would see an array of: characters, alternate worlds, emotions, happy endings, sad endings, and everything in between.

It’s so important to protect our mental health at any age, a creative outlet is an escape for me, and ideally, I want to create that for everyone. Especially for children, at a young age we are so impressionable, the invention of social media has not made it easier for the young minds of today. They shouldn’t have to worry about editing photographs to look perfect or planning their content to upload like clockwork to appear interesting.

Figuring out who you are starts at a young age, but my theory is that it never truly ends, because we are always changing and growing. Let’s encourage the children with stories of open mindedness, acceptance, confidence, friendship and even the importance of playing outdoors (something that is losing hype as the gadgets become cooler and the importance of getting some vitamin D takes a backseat).

We need stories to teach them that bullying is for cowards, and stories to show them that they can be anything they want to be, whether it’s simple or seems impossible, whether it’s: education, sport, fashion, music or literally anything you can think of – perspiration and inspiration are the keys to success.

Why should you support my passion you ask? Well by supporting my passion, you’re simply supporting yourself, and your children to come. You’d be surprised how much a story can stick with you. Let’s be story makers together.