I’m up here in the Berkshires for a few days writing this from my favorite Great Barrington coffee place, Uncommon Grounds. I had to get away from the house for a little while because I’m writing a book and needed to come up for a little air.
The book is about personal change, both mine and others, especially some of the incredible people I’ve met whose inspiring stories have appeared in GUIDEPOSTS. At their heart, all GUIDEPOSTS stories are about change. In fact it’s the first thing we editors ask ourselves when considering a manuscript—how and why does the narrator change?
We all experience change, sometimes huge and transformational change, sometimes small or incremental. I’ve always said that everyone has a GUIDEPOSTS story and in truth all personal change is spiritual in nature even when it is practical in its outcome.
Part of the book is recounting some of the incredible stories I’ve heard during my years at GUIDEPOSTS. But ask yourself, have I heard your story?
I’d love to, and maybe I can fit it into my book. The big dramatic stories are always great, the ones that leave you gasping in awe. What I really love, though, are the small stories of our daily triumphs with personal change, like the tall woman in my building who finally threw out all her ugly black flats and started wearing the high-heeled shoes she loved because she was tired of the futility of trying to be someone she wasn’t…a person pretending not to be so tall. Now she carries herself with new confidence and beauty.
I’m betting you have personal change stories, big and small. Let me know about them by posting below. Meanwhile I’ll go back to work.
Edward Grinnan is Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of GUIDEPOSTS Publications.
