Dragon in the Fog

It was the morning of Thanksgiving and fog covered the streets. I suspected the sun had yet to rise since the world was so dark and glum. Having to work, I headed into the chilly morning to find a layer of frost on my truck’s windows. My truck takes as long as I do to wake up in the morning. Meaning, the heater doesn’t kick in until I reach 60 mph. Until I hit the highway, the fog kept freezing on my windshield like a child trying to cover my eyes to keep me from seeing. Thankfully, traffic was light on this holiday. The radio was playing my favorite Christian songs. My truck heated up to fight back the fog and all became well.

Not long later, the world just brightens up. I had driven out of the fog, something I had never done before. Usually, I make it to my destination and the fog passes by while I’m inside a building, but that morning, I actually found the end of the fog myself. I thought it was so cool. Before, you couldn’t see the sunrise, but then yellow light was hovering over the clouds on the horizon. It made me smile and truly appreciate the “coming out of the fog” analogy I use in my writings. That’s when I realized the clouds on the horizon were a lot closer than they appeared. It was another blanket of fog and I drove right into it. Again, I was amazed at how quickly the bright of the morning turned into a dark, hazy gloom. I could barely see the lights of the car I followed a hundred feet ahead. Eventually, I got off the highway the fog is still so thick that the morning sun can’t shine through. The time could easily be mistaken as the middle of the night.

Something about that foggy morning lit a fire in me. I was excited and rearing to go like someone shot me up with expresso. Looking through the fog, I could just envision the different scenes of my writings that occur in such a setting. I almost expected my characters to be walking down the sidewalk or flying out of the fog just to fade away back into as they rushed to complete their tasks. It was invigorating!

Then, I get to a tall hill on my route that has a stoplight at its peak. All I could see of the stoplight were its two lights and they were red as I started the climb up the hill. I knew they were stoplights. I knew what they meant, but my imagination envisioned so much more! I saw the red eyes of a dragon peering down at me and the fog that filled the world was the smoke that steamed from its nostrils. The closer I got to it, the more I felt like a knight riding a noble steed toward the danger ahead and I needed to pull the sword at my side in preparation to slay the beast. Well, I didn’t actually have a sword and I certainly wasn’t a knight. Just a girl in canine care driving an old truck towards a stoplight. The light turned green and the poles of the stoplight came into view, killing my fantasy, but it was fun while it lasted.

I guess the point I’m trying to get across is how a little change of scenery can really fire the imagination and brighten your day. For me, it was a foggy ride to work that gave me the momentary thrill of charging a dragon head on. Even if you’re stuck in the daily routine of seeing the same old, same old, try to change it up a bit and let your imagination loose. Let yourself see the dragon in the distance or maybe you see a spaceship dropping off aliens instead? If you pass an old tree on the way to work, give that tree your own story. Maybe witches once hanged from its limbs or the trunk holds the doorway to a magical world. It’s a good way to free yourself from the mundane of the day to day and you get that self-earned pride of slaying a dragon, stopping an invasion, or hanging evil witches from trees. Maybe you’ll even come up with a novel idea?

It can’t hurt to try.