Tracks and Trains

The other day I watched a film I had recorded a few weeks ago called Under The Tuscan Sun. The film is adapted from a book written by Frances Mayes and stars Diane Lane. It’s a film I’ve seen before and is a lovely feel-good film – especially seeing sunny Italy as opposed to the miserable weather here at the moment.

The film is about a just-divorced writer who buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim, hoping it will be the start of a change for the better in her life. What Frances really wants to do is to meet her soul-mate, fall in love and to fill her new home with people and laughter.

But she despairs of ever meeting Mr Right and during a conversation is told a story about a train track which was built to link Austria and Venice. The track was built through mountains even though, as yet, no train existed which could scale such heights. Eventually though, such a train came about and the tracks were put to good use.

And in the end, Frances does get her wish even though it is not entirely in ways she expected.

The film reminded me of a time in my life when I too was despairing of ever finding Mr Right. Most of my friends were marrying and having babies and I thought I was going end up a lonely old spinster with only my cat for company. At the time I was also living in shared – rented accommodation and was longing for a place of my own and some stability.

Then one day I made a decision. If I was going to end up a spinster, I was going to do it on my own terms. So I took another job, saved up and bought my own house and shoved all thoughts of finding Mr Right to the far recesses of my mind. And do you know? Before I even moved into that house, I met the man who would later become my husband.

And that is how I’m going to look at my writing this year. I need to forget about the big dream for the time being and start building those tracks, section by section. Then maybe one day, my train will come along, just as the man did.