Sunday, November 20, 2011

GIVING THANKS

Yes, I know. I switched those two words from the familiar usage of 'Thanksgiving'. I hear people say 'thanks' all the time, but do they really pause to feel it? I've heard many a prayer spoken giving thanks for everything under the sun. But, I often wonder if people are really 'feeling thankful' or just reciting words they've heard so many times before. 'Thanks' rolls off the tongue so easily. Somebody opens the door for us - "thanks". Somebody complements us - "thanks".
How many of you have actually given somebody a thank you card recently? I don't mean the obligatory thank you card for a wedding or baby shower gift. I mean a card you went to the store and picked out. Especially in today's electronic world, a simple thing like a card can mean a lot to somebody. It takes much more effort to send a card than pushing a 'send' button on a computer screen. No, I don't work for Hallmark but, in my opinion, nothing beats receiving a thank you card. So, maybe at this time of giving thanks, you might consider sending a thank you card to somebody you are truly thankful for. Just because. Plus the post office could use the business!.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Things We Should Be Doing

This year's NaNoWriMo has got me all messed up. Usually at this point I am at least a little ahead or right on the money with my word count. As of today, I am way behind. I mean WAY BEHIND. Like 5,000 words behind. What happened? That's pretty easy to answer. When I should be writing, I have been doing other things. Like laying in bed a few extra minutes in the morning. Like not writing at all on Friday. Like staying for one extra beer at my favorite hang out. Like staring at Facebook waiting for a status update from somebody, anybody.
As human beings, there are lots of things we have to do just for our daily survival. Most of us have to go to work. We have to prepare meals either for ourselves or a whole family. We have to shop for the food for those meals, even if it's just fast food, there is effort involved. We have to do housework and laundry. Sometimes, for me anyway, the whole survival thing gets pretty tiring. My mind and body zone out. I can't seem to get anything else accomplished.
And that's were I come back to NaNo. As a writer, I know  the importance of writing everyday. And NaNo forces you to do that. But, this failure to make the required number of words so far is feeling more like survival mode instead of fun, So maybe I'll ignore the word count for now and just try to write something, anything, between the cracks of everyday living.