An Unintentional Start Over
By Sherri Wilson Johnson
Have you ever wished you could start over? You’ve made so many mistakes in life that it seems you can’t get away from the reputation you’ve earned? Maybe it’s someone in your life that you can’t get away from and you want to pack your bags and leave. You want to leave your hectic lifestyle in the city for a peaceful existence in the country.
In my novel Song of the Meadowlark, Cora Buchanan is in that very spot. Her husband disappears one night after being arrested and bailed out for drug trafficking. In a flash, Cora’s life is turned upside down. The man she loves with all her heart is now a fugitive on the run. She waits a year and then decides to leave the town she lived in with him to return home to her parents to mend their broken relationship. Although she hopes Clark will return and be found not guilty, she can’t wait on him and must attempt to repair the broken bridges with her parents. She braces herself for the harsh words that will undoubtedly come over the fact that they were right in their opinion of Clark prior to her marriage to him. While traveling through Georgia on her way home to Florida, Cora’s car breaks down and leaves her stranded. This is where her unintentional do-over begins. At first she curses her old car but later realizes if it had not been for it she would not have found a new beginning.
Sometimes all it takes is a desire to start over to set the wheels in motion. The beauty in getting a fresh start is that you have the chance to seek forgiveness from those you have offended and you can forgive those who have wronged you even if they do not ask. To truly start over, a pruning happens in your life. You cut away the old in order for the new to grow. It’s a painful process, but once it occurs, you feel so grand.
When writing a novel, you have to do a lot of editing to get it right. It’s a painful process. Sometimes you have to cut away things that seem vital to the story because in reality they are not. Once you have a finished product, you will not miss those scenes because they weighed down the characters and kept them from being all they could be.
Not all starting over requires you to pack your bags and leave town nor does it always involve kicking someone out of your life. Sometimes all it takes is nothing more than a seed of desire, which germinates and becomes a lovely plant or tree with new life blossoming all over it. When we let God direct our paths and when our motives are pure, He will guide us where we never could go on our own. Psalm 23:3 (NIV) says: “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” That is a promise that He will keep.
About Sherri: Sherri Wilson Johnson is the author of To Dance Once More and Song of the Meadowlark. She is from Georgia, has been married since 1988, and is a former homeschooling mom. She loves to write, read, eat ice cream, ride roller coasters and make people laugh. She loves Jesus and hopes to spread His love to the whole world through her writing. Visit her at www.sherriwilsonjohnson.com
About Song of the Meadowlark:
When trusting others causes nothing but pain and rejection, and loving ends only in loss, what will it take to restore hope again? Shamed by the uncovered truth about her missing husband’s secret life, Cora Buchanan sets out on a road trip for home to mend her broken relationship with her parents. While traveling through Georgia—through a town experiencing missing and murdered women—her car breaks down leaving her stranded. Cora stays at the struggling Southern Hope Ranch until she can get back on the road. While there, a bond develops between Cora and little Susie O’Reilly, who unexpectedly fills a void in Cora’s heart. She finally journeys home but wants to return to Georgia to help save the ranch and to aid the family when the crimes hit too close to home. Will Rex O’Reilly, the bitter widower angry with God—and father to Susie—stand in her way?
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