2023 A to Z Challenge Blog: Vision and Visualizing

Good morning. It’s another undecided spring day here, but I’m slowly seeing Mother Nature’s green thumb as new life springs up all around me. Trees are budding, flowers are sprouting … ah, the joys of allergy season abound.

Today’s letter is V, and my Did you know? for the day centers on vision and visualizing. Did you know that there are two definitions of vision? There’s the sense everyone who has it takes for granted until something happens and they lose it, the ability to see and perceive objects using the eyes and optic nerves. The other definition is the ability to think about the future and make plans based on your hopes, dreams, wisdom, and more importantly, your imagination. Visualizing, on the other hand, means the ability to form a picture of something in your mind that, while you can’t actually see it, has been described well enough for you to imagine it.

As a writer, I prize my physical ability to see because it helps me describe the images using words, so that my readers can visualize a setting, a scene, or a character as the need may be. I use it and my other senses to paint pictures with words. I also use the other aspect of vision to plot the novel, plan for the action and resolution in a story. While I may write from the seat of my pants without formal plot diagrams, I always know where things are going–I’m just a little fuzzy about the how, where, and when.

Here’s an excerpt from Forever in my Heart.

Mike Branscomb continued suturing the Howard cat. At twelve, Cupcake had used up another of her nine lives, this time getting tangled in barbed wire fencing someone had left lying around. He would have to make an appeal to the farmers to keep that stuff safely stowed away. A lot of them had recently reinforced their fences hoping to keep the coyotes, cougars, and other predators away from their poultry and livestock. The more the town grew, the more animal habitats shrunk. Luke had done the same at the ranch. Mike had gone out a week ago to help.

This morning, knowing he had a heavy day of scheduled surgeries at the clinic, he’d gone out to the stable earlier to see Snowdrop, his sister-in-law’s mare who showed signs of foaling ahead of her due date. The horse was expecting twins, and while he’d done his best, whether or not the foals would survive was in the hands of the Almighty. Their odds weren’t good, but he’d seen animals beat the odds before—like this cat. Losing Cupcake would be hard on Mildred which was why the elderly woman needed to keep the calico inside.

Mike tied off the last suture as a wave of pain so profound it nauseated him, washed over him, dropping him to his knees in a manner far more effective than any football tackle had ever been.

Luke! The last time he’d felt anything close to this had been when his identical twin had been thrown from a horse almost thirty years ago … but this was a thousand times worse.

Something had happened to Luke—something bad. What the hell had that daredevil brother tried to do now? Taking his wife on a three-day romantic getaway should’ve been safe enough for any man, even one as foolhardy as Luke.

Cassie loved the Jasper Park Lodge with all of the outdoor activities in the area. It was where Luke had proposed. She enjoyed jogging, hiking, even rock climbing, but she usually managed to keep Mike in check, avoiding the more difficult ascents. So what had he done? Fallen off the damn mountain? The weather probably hadn’t helped.

It might only be the last week of September, but freak snowstorms were nothing new in this part of the Rockies. Timberton, the small town of less than two thousand or so hardy souls located just outside of Banff National Park, was ready for anything at this time of year. The temperature had been in the twenties only three days ago, and now it hovered around minus fifteen. Mother Nature couldn’t make up her mind about rain or snow, so she’d solved the problem and had sent both.

The impossibly loud jangling of the phone startled him, and he slowly rose to his feet, the pain still eating at him. A few minutes later, the door to the small surgery opened.

“It’s for you, Mike,” his receptionist said, her face chalk white.

He reached for the handheld extension on his desk, pressed the call answer icon as well as the speaker one.

Lucy backed out of the room, without making eye contact, and closed the door.

He swallowed the lump of fear threatening to choke him.

“Dr. Branscomb speaking.”

He prayed this was all a mistake, but the unbelievable pain still making him weak said otherwise.

“Mike, it’s Phil Madsen. The RCMP just called. There’s been an accident at the south end of the Icefield Parkway.” The sheriff paused, his tone ominous. “A trucker called it in just after it happened. The police dispatched a car. No way to sugarcoat it. It’s Luke and Cassie. No details yet. Might’ve swerved to avoid an oncoming car or an animal. They’ll be taken to Calgary as soon as they can manage it. Using the air ambulance is out of the question until the weather clears.”

Mike’s blood ran cold as goosebumps crawled up his spine.

“And that could take hours. I’m on my way. Can you let whoever’s in charge know?”

“I’ll do better than that,” Phil answered, his voice filled with sympathy. “I’ll pick you up at the clinic. You probably shouldn’t be driving after news like this. Besides, my vehicle is better equipped to travel in this weather than yours, and given the sirens and lights, I’ll make sure nothing slows us down.”

Phil gave a few more details about the location; some sunk in, others didn’t make sense. Luke was a careful driver. He would’ve been even more conscientious along that strip of the road, although why the hell he’d been driving in this weather was a mystery. A sudden thought stopped Mike in his tracks, his heart skipping a beat. “The girls?” He could barely utter the words.

“They aren’t in the car. I asked. I assume they’re back at the ranch with their nanny.”

“Of course.” While Cassie might’ve wanted to take the twin angels with her, Luke would’ve convinced her to leave the six-month-old infants behind to give his wife a rest and have some alone time with her. There was nothing wrong with wanting some quiet time with the woman you loved. The hard part was finding that woman in the first place. “I’ll be waiting out front for you.”

Like a robot, Mike ended the call and finished bandaging Cupcake before putting her back inside her cage. Moving to the basin, he took off his gloves and washed his hands before removing the rest of his surgical gear. Gritting his teeth to mask the pain, he stepped into the small waiting room.

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter V. Enjoy your day.