Come Away! Come Away!

"And now, Peter Pan, you shall die."  "To die would be an awfully big adventure."

I have an obsession with Peter Pan.  It's one of the few things I ever fangirl about (my friend and I have memorized almost the entire 2003 version of the movie.).  I saw Peter Pan when it was performed as a ballet the first time in the country, it's one of my absolute most favorite books and I've watched the movie (2003) dozens of times. 

"Can you use it?"

"Forget them Wendy.  Forget them all."

I often ask myself, "Why Peter?  Why not Aragorn or Legolas or Hermione Granger or Percy Jackson or Holly Shorts?  Why the cocky little boy named 'Peter...Pan?'"

I don't think it's his cockiness (The reason why Hook hates him so much).  I don't even think it's Barrie's eloquent writing or Hogan's brilliant directing.

I think it's the fact that I can relate to him, and I think that's why he's lasted for so long.  People can relate to his refusal to grow up.


To me, adults have always (and still are) fuddy-duddies.  Realists.  Concerned more with the future than the now.  The what rather than the why.

They've forgotten how to dream.

They've forgotten how to live!

My little mind used to reason that if that's what happens when you 'grow up,' I don't want to grow up!

I want to dream.  I want to live in the now.  I want to be able to still ask, "Why?" 

"'Tis a powerful thing."

Now, I'm taking on responsibility myself.  I'm not near as afraid to associate with "grown-ups" as I used to be.  I worry more than I used to.

I'm growing up.

For a while, I fought it tooth and nail.  I made an effort to not see what needed to be done, so

"Or I'll cast anchor in you!"

I wouldn't do it.  I refused to answer the phone.  I refused to talk to people more than a few years older than me if I could avoid it.  I was practically praying Peter would come and take me to Neverland!

Then I started to see it was okay to grow up and take on responsibility.  I could grow up and still dream.  I could grow up and didn't have to worry.  After all, God's on my side when I'm on his, right?

It's okay to grow up, because it's still my choice as to the person I become.

"Pan!  You're...pink!"

NaNoWriMo Fever

NaNo update!: So, yesterday NaNoWriMo started.  I wrote over 2000 words and now it's after eleven today and haven't written anything, mostly because I had to help Dad in hte shop and I slept in for almost two hours (I also fell asleep while writing yesterday.  It was at Mom's piano studio.  She had a student.  Awkward). 

I know many Wrimos are terrified to get started, and I'm writing this to encourage.

It's hard to step out and try new things for many of us.  We're terrified we'll do it wrong.  And you know what, you will get this wrong.

Every great novel ever written had a terrible first draft.

That's the point in NaNoWriMo!  To ignore your inner editor and let yourself write a novel.  Sure the diting is absolutely horrendous, but that's what December is for.

Now, why are you reading this?  Stop pretending it's National Novel Procrastination Month and go write!

~Charlotte Grace, the Mind Traveler