Stories, Dreams, and Memories...

I'm reading a book by the late Anne Carol George called This One and Magic Life. It's described as a novel of a southern family. It's a definite departure from her Southern Sisters Mysteries. It's much more serious but is infused with the kind of humor which comes from being part of a large, complicated family. About midway through, this paragraph stood out to me:

"Lord knows, there are enough memories.

 Live this long and they run out of your ears, disappear. 

And the ones still in your head you can't trust... 

Well, it's all dreams anyway. And dreams don't make a grain of sense. 

And sometimes I don't know if I'm beginning or ending. 

Or if any of us are. And that's all right."  

~ Naomi Cates, This One and Magic Life by Anne Carroll George

Memories. Fleeting and mysterious and sometimes disturbing, but integral for a story teller. Figuring out how to draw them in and place them in a perfectly wrapped package so people can see the picture you are trying to show them, that is the trick. It's a skill which requires intuition or training. Usually both. It's what I want to figure out how to do. It's exactly what Anne Carol George was able to do with her story, drawing me into the world of this family, compelling me to follow their journey to the end of the book.