“Alice,” ventured Phoebe. “Do you think they mean to eat us?”
Alice
took in a deep, but filtered, breath and let it out slowly. “Phoebe, I cannot say for certain, but I
believe if they meant to eat us they’d have done it right away.” She hoped with all her heart that it was
true.
This is a scene from Parted Clouds, my novel for young readers. My characters, Alice and Phoebe, are in great danger at this point in the story. They rely on each other to keep their hope alive that Jack will come and rescue them and all will be well in the end.
Alice had to take a deep, filtered breath. As a writer, I used my own experience in this scene. I understand the need to take in a deep breath at a scary moment. A filtered breath, filtering out discouragement, doubt, maybe even common sense. Breathing in hope. Hope is the belief that circumstances will get better even though there is no evidence to back it up. Hope keeps Alice and Phoebe from giving up, and helps them keep their wits about them. Because they have hope they can imagine a future where everything is OK.
There have been times in my life when I was breathing in all the wrong things. Fear, discouragement, doubt and an active imagination presented a future to me where everything was a mess. When I decided that I wanted a different future I learned to take a filtered breath and allow myself to breathe in some hope.
Emily Dickensen uses a bird as a metaphor for hope in her poem "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers". The bird continues to sing even though it doesn't know the words and it is stuck in a raging storm that could smash it at any moment. Sometimes we all feel like we are stuck in a raging storm. It takes courage to have hope.
Stories give us role models who show us how to respond to the storms we face. Often without even realizing it, we emulate the best that we see in others, whether they are people we know or they are characters from books. Stories help us become the best we can be.
Alice had to take a deep, filtered breath. As a writer, I used my own experience in this scene. I understand the need to take in a deep breath at a scary moment. A filtered breath, filtering out discouragement, doubt, maybe even common sense. Breathing in hope. Hope is the belief that circumstances will get better even though there is no evidence to back it up. Hope keeps Alice and Phoebe from giving up, and helps them keep their wits about them. Because they have hope they can imagine a future where everything is OK.
There have been times in my life when I was breathing in all the wrong things. Fear, discouragement, doubt and an active imagination presented a future to me where everything was a mess. When I decided that I wanted a different future I learned to take a filtered breath and allow myself to breathe in some hope.
Emily Dickensen uses a bird as a metaphor for hope in her poem "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers". The bird continues to sing even though it doesn't know the words and it is stuck in a raging storm that could smash it at any moment. Sometimes we all feel like we are stuck in a raging storm. It takes courage to have hope.
Stories give us role models who show us how to respond to the storms we face. Often without even realizing it, we emulate the best that we see in others, whether they are people we know or they are characters from books. Stories help us become the best we can be.
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