Story of My Life?

The end of the year always brings with it a chance for self reflection. Now this can be a good thing unless you begin to fill your mind with the countless what ifs. And let me tell you I am a master at dragging up those missed opportunities, unrealized dreams, and best intentions.

And it doesn't stop with the previous year unfortunately. Sometimes I go decades back to re-examine my past. Of course I know that my life's experiences have made me the person I am today, and all the decisions I've made helped create the life I have now. Okay...whatever.

A famous author once told me that the question "what if" was one the best idea generators for his young adult novels. After considering several of my own...here's the beginning to one possible story of my life. Disclaimer...names have been changed to protect the innocent and some scenes have been fictionalized for effect.

Miranda’s life had been a simple one. After graduating from the American University of Paris, she took a job as an art instructor at Midwestern College and spent most of her weekends volunteering at the McNeill Gallery, a privately owned venture that housed one of the finest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings and sculptures.

In her spare time, she freelanced for style and fashion magazines, and on occasion made time to have dinner with close friends; she rarely dated and was quite content in her downtown loft with her cat, Azure, her paints and easel, and volumes of classic literature.

Miranda usually worked Saturday afternoons at the McNeill; she often found herself standing in the Rose Wing of the gallery lost in Renoir’s landscapes and nudes. The heavy, thick brushstrokes in oil on ancient canvas were hypnotic like fine wine and took her back to Montmarte where so many greats had sat along the Seine capturing the daily life of ordinary French men and women as they came and went.

It was there in the Rose Wing that he first captured her attention – Alonso Romaro, the oldest son of a wealthy, private collector, who had flown in from Columbia to view the gallery’s collection. Her life would never be the same.