Once upon a time,..

Those four words are some of the most powerful in the English language. Hearing or reading those words means a story is coming next. You don't know who, what or where it is taking place but you know that something great is about to happen. Great stories have been starting with them since 1476 in Aesop's fables. Those four words are triggers to launch imagination and emotions around the world.

I can't speak for you but my go to genre is Fantasy. Has been for many years and although I love all sorts of work and always appreciate an elegant turn of phrase these books literally hold the magic for me. When I hold one in my hand new or old my brain starts to work and I put together the bits that I know or begin to determine the tiny relevance of the picture on the cover  ( Oh I know, but face it we all do it, with books and people). I find myself asking ,"Where is a castle, in foreboding winter world, like that?" Or "Why does she have that tattoo? Sometimes when I'm outside my genre I wonder about the crime at hand and what kind of a gun that is. Perhaps it's a historical piece and I discover I know almost nothing about architecture from the last century.

The stories tell us things, teach us things and sometimes even warn us about ourselves.
I have realized the power of those words and I am grateful [see last post] that I have both the ability and opportunity to read anything I want.

Many of us post signs and pictures in our bedrooms bathrooms and offices to inspire us to keep on keeping on. I have:
 Carpe Diem, and Nolite Dies Sine Linaes
They mean, Sieze the Day, and Never a day without a line,

I have a few others in English too: like the very encouraging;

"We got some daylight left. You want to use it or what?" from Steven King's Eddie Dean to Roland in The Gunslinger saga.

and the instructional; WRITE! it's a verb

I have more that i rotate in and out on the bulletin board, but I've added another this week. It puts me in a frame of mind that remembers how important reading of any kind is. Fiction or function, a book always brings you something, and in this modern world of whizzing electrons and non stop communication in tiny bursts, a book slows you down. A book stimulates you brain, builds the skill of reading itself, enlightens, inspires or fascinates. Sometimes they frighten, horrify or even titillate.They can delight and confuse make you raise a hand in triumph, or sag with tears. No matter what you read a book affects you, often now and occasionally in the future, when something you read becomes something you learned and you were able to use that information or knowledge in your own life. . 

So now when I finally hit the bed and look at the wall opposite me I see the phrase;

 Once upon a time.... 

And I pick up my current book for a few minutes. 

You should too.