Luka - Author Notes

Quite often when I was putting the chapters together for the Guru book, I would have thoughts come to me early in the morning when I should have been sleeping, or a warm fuzzy feeling would overcome me to let me know that what I was writing was the answer I was looking for, the message I needed to deliver.   I often prayed to God for what He wanted me to express as an answer for any question raised, and it is my belief that we worked together as a team, as He supplemented, corrected, added, or controlled my thoughts.  It does not matter exactly where my thoughts came from, as I cannot prove it, just as long as the thoughts were correct.  Whenever I revisit what I wrote for what the Guru said post publication after further experience and reading, his message as to correctness remains rock solid.  As for Chapter VIII for the young lady named ‘Luka’, that was quite the story in itself for how it came together.

Let me start by stating there was some personal experience behind this chapter that gave me inspiration, being my own mother.  She was diagnosed by a medical doctor and cancer specialist when she was 69 years of age, as having only three months to live. She believed him and passed away after three months.  We could not change her mind.  She had an asbestos tumor wedged between her heart and spine that they could do nothing about because of its location.  This was something that started to grow when she was a young lady living in a building in England that would have exposed her to asbestos dust.  She lived on the “second floor” with her parents and worked on the main floor as a teller for a local bank. If there was not that much dust normally in the building, there certainly was when one of the German buzz bombs exploded, putting a big hole in the roof, while she had taken cover underneath a large heavy dining room table! 

The tumor was pressing on her heart and lungs and this explains why she had an irregular heart beat all her life.  The tumor was slow growing, but when she was older, it eventually penetrated the outer lining of her lungs and metastasized and spread throughout her body.  She believed the doctor’s story of only having three months and this is how she lived her remaining life, doing things that needed to be done and preparing for the next chapter of her existence.  For she had the greatest faith of anyone I know about continuing on as spirit, once she took her last breath.  This happened 31 years ago, but you never completely forget, as I was there. But to elaborate further here on my mother is not the intention of this document.

Now then, let me introduce you to a figurine we have in our house:

A lovely little figurine depicting a young lady with an umbrella and hat, expressing her feminism.  We have a few of these figurines and when we repainted our kitchen cabinets, we packed them away to keep safe from harm.  We never put them back until a year or two later, when I discovered them again, all carefully wrapped up in paper in a box.  I decided that we really should display them again for the world to see.  Getting permission from my wife, I unpacked them and proceeded to make room in the cabinet for their permanent location.  What happened next, I do not recall, other than the horror of swinging something around in my hand and accidentally swatting this figurine hard enough that her complete head came off at the neck!  Decapitated! Oh my God, NO! How could I have done this!   My wife will kill me once she finds out! Why was I not more careful?!  I was mortified.

Fortunately, I quickly took the figurine inconspicuously downstairs, as I had some crazy glue! I very carefully glued the head back onto the body.  This worked so well that you would not know that it had been severed, unless carefully studied, since it was a clean break.  The break was also uneven, but with no loose chips, so that I knew exactly in what position the head had to be located on the neck stub, and it fit perfectly and only needed some glue to “seal the deal”.  I did confess later, once I knew I could present the figurine in one piece and what a good patch job I did!

Since I liked it so much after studying its detail once together, I chose to keep it on my office desk for a while, and also as a reminder to be more careful next time.  We had a history of being together.  I remember thinking that perhaps I could write a story about her in my book, but did not know offhand what it would be about.  I then reminded myself I wanted to write about my mother’s cancer experience, giving some wisdom for what she could have done differently that might have extended her life by a few more months.  I knew I did not want the main character to be entirely my mother, but perhaps this figurine could represent her at a younger age. The figurine did not have cancer, but did have a rather serious head injury, and she was back together again! 

I often listen to Youtube music when I am writing and I even like to reference a song to help get my audience engaged.  Several chapters in Guru had a song I wanted to reference, but could not because of copyright issues. However, I often leave YouTube references in my short stories published here.  The difference is I can make money selling my book, but these short stories are made available free of charge.  There is nothing to lose and everything to gain for the owner of each song since I am just referring them to what I liked and what I recommend my audience listen to, which usually comes with advertisements before and after as standard YouTube experience.  With the figurine on my desk that I often looked at when writing, I let myself listen to some YouTube music in the background when writing Chapter VIII to get some inspiration.  When YouTube started playing one of my favorite songs “Luka” as sung by Suzanne Vega, I chose to take a break and switch my screen to watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZt7J0iaUD0

I looked at the figurine, then at Luka.  I looked back at the figurine and then Luka and it was as if the figurine was moving as Luka! Huh?! I could not believe my eyes!  I played the song a few times to study the resemblance!  Yes, perhaps just one or two years older, but Luka is the figurine!  It was a perfect match! The expression on her face was that of the figurine, especially when you see it in the right light, darker than shown above.  Luka has her hair, and how she turns her head off to the side with her eyes is that of the figurine, and she has the same expression on her face! She also lives on the second floor, the same as my mother did way back when!  She also wore a hat in a few scenes and had the umbrella of the figurine!  I even saw some qualities of Luka that were similar to my mother when it came to her noncompetitive nature, her kind disposition, and soft mannerism. This song was what I was looking for and my watching it was meant to be!  Everything was coming together as one! Now this is a classic example of how your thoughts can manifest when you study an object which became a vision in my mind!  I feel as if I was being guided and encouraged to write this chapter for the benefit of my audience.

The story for this chapter came together very quickly once I had the song to base it on.  Luka gave me more story line to deviate from my mother, such as having a fight with her husband, already having a son, living in a big city in America, in order to make it work for the book. Thank you, Suzanne, for how you inspired me to write a story that included some of my mother’s experience, but with a much happier ending!