Traditionally, in the best stories, someone wants something they don't have. Untold obstacles stand in their way. Just as they are about to lose hope, they triumph. Can there be a story without conflict, where everything happens exactly as the main character desires?
There may not be a story without conflict, but in every story there are perfect moments. Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway has her kiss with Sally Seton. Jane Eyre has the moment when Mr. Rochester proposes to her. Callie in Middlesex has the moment she runs away to assume a male identity.
Earlier this year, I started collecting perfect moments. So far I have collected stories of birth, of love, of awe at natural beauty, of liberation, of triumph, and of being at peace with the world. I have visited an orgasmic meditation group, the dungeon of a castle, and a law of attraction workshop, where a woman channels "infinite intelligence."
From that workshop, I remembered two things in particular:
"Don't do anything that you're not inspired to do."
"Realities change, even realities that are said to be unchangeable."
This is the perfect moment I collected yesterday.
"I remember feeling that everything was exactly as it should be, but I can't remember exactly the circumstances. Life is always giving us this way forward. It's happened to me a lot while traveling, like when a stranger gives me a place to stay or when I get a job just when I'm running short on money."