Michael is the host of Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie’s Tale Weaver.  Michael says:
We all spend times in our lives searching for something be it, love, the way home, the past, the list goes on.  The task this week is to weave a tale in which ‘search’ features. Go where the prompt takes you and have fun.

In the Showtime series, Dexter, one of Dexter’s co-workers ends up in the hospital, dying of something, I think cancer. Dexter visits her often. She tells Dexter that she has searched for years for the perfect key lime pie but hasn’t found it yet. Over so many episodes, Dexter brings her pieces of key lime pie to see if he can find the perfect piece of pie for her. I can’t remember whether she does or not, because it wasn’t about the pie. It was never about the pie.

Searching, and the life that is lived while searching, is what’s important not to miss. I was a goal-oriented person for so many years, and goals are what drove me. It was easy, and probably essential, to implant the idea that the goal would be reached by any means necessary, otherwise it would be too easy to give up. However, the goals that drove me blinded me to so much, especially when it came to appreciating my sons growing up. Their dad was always there for them, but they needed me too and got short-changed in many ways.

Goals are great motivators and I would encourage anyone who needs a sense of purpose in their lives to set goals for themselves. Just don’t forget to appreciate the life you are living along the way to them.

At this time of my life, the searches vary and are most often on the surface. There will be no more big career goals or material possessions goals.

No more yard sales! I have enough junk already, no matter how good the bargains are at them.

Things I do search for, consciously or subconsciously:

• a good subject/object to photograph

• aesthetic landscaping

• interesting architecture

• birds of a species not seen before

• resonant authors (including poets)

• pretty flowers

• rolling bike trails

• gifts I think my loved ones would like

• friends who “get” me

• movies and television series that aren’t cliche

• music that moves me

• funny things

• good times with friends and loved ones

• validation that my writing resonates with others

What are YOU searching for?