Category: Snippets of the Everyday

These posts don’t deal directly with my writing life, though of course, inspiration comes from everywhere.

And It’s Leap Day

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So, I felt the need to blog today. As if I needed to put a stamp on this day to recognize that yes, indeed, it’s a 29th day in February and that a 29th day in February is a Rare Day that needs to be Memorialized and Celebrated. Or something.

At any rate, in honor of the fact that I can only really write “February 29” every four years, I’ll share 20 mini-goals toward my big life goals that I WILL make happen by the next Leap Year. I’d write 29, you know, because of The Significance that is Today, but as you’ll see, I already had these 20 mini-goals in mind, and I didn’t want to spend extra time making up nine more, when I could be accomplishing the goals on my current list. Like the first one. I’m sure my crit partners would like for me to get on that one, like now.

(Plus, I kinda hate nines and prefer round numbers.)

In no particular order, except for #1:

  1. Finish WIP2. Query it.
  2. Meet my writing buddies at DFW Con. Be accountable.
  3. Go to my paythebills job Event this year (a BIG deal, trust me!). Be inspired. Go next year.
  4. Go to World Fantasy Con. Be a Fan Girl.
  5. Write and finish WIP5. Because it’s snarky yet sweet.
  6. Write and finish WIP4. Because it’s an overwhelmingly huge fantasy novel, and I love challenges.
  7. Write and finish WIP3. Because it reminds me to forgive.
  8. Rewrite my Hot Mess of a first novel. Because by now I will have the skill to execute its storyline.
  9. Be credit card free. Being able to give generously to people means more to me than amounting crap I don’t need.
  10. Read all of Haruki Murakami’s books. Because his stories are what I want to write, but lack the skill.
  11. Revisit the idea of going to graduate school.
  12. Go on a Disney cruise with my family. Because I want to visit Harry Potter World. I said it.
  13. Grow a vegetable garden. Because paying $4 for a salad is ridiculous.
  14. Return to Maui. Hopefully a few times. Refresh my spirits.
  15. Go on a mission trip. Maybe Brazil, or back to the Philippines.
  16. Learn to surf. For real.
  17. Road trip to more national parks. I missed out on Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone Park the last time.
  18. 90% of my food will come from local, organic sources. For reasons too numerous to share here.
  19. Own a puppy. Because my husband has this need to love and be loved.
  20. Continue to meet my physical fitness goals. Because it’s more fun to DO these things in a body that can keep up with my travel goals!

What milestones are on your list?

Image attribution: Shalom Jacobovitz

Nerd Moment

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I interrupt what would normally have been an insightful, nay, inspirational post to say this:

“Squeeeeee!!! It’s here, it’s here!!”

I am OF COURSE talking about John Green’s latest book, The Fault In Our Stars, newly released this past Tuesday. (I first mentioned how I looked forward to the book HERE, when I went to a John Green signing back in June, and he read an excerpt from it.)

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Aside from my own ridiculous need to finish this draft of WIP2 THIS MONTH, I now have another incentive to get me to write my pages! ^_^

Thoughts on a Quiet Morning

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I haven’t had a quiet morning like this one in some time. Gonna be honest, I’m enjoying this moment, as I am savoring my morning coffee, which is perfectly smooth today, if I do say so myself.

Outside my window, it’s misty and gray. My dear husband is depressed looking at it. He says it’s dying outside, and his poor woodland friends are slowly starving to death. (Which is kinda funny if you knew how much he feeds them all. The squirrels are as big as cats. Heck, maybe they ate the cats.) To me, it looks romantic out there. Like, the setting of a gothic romance, kind of romantic. Like, Heathcliff on the moors, romantic (here in Indiana, our “moors” are just flooded harvested fields, but, whatever.)

I say my observation out loud, and Hubs turns and looks at me, and wonders if I’m broken. (You see, I don’t normally use the word “romantic” in conversation, preferring the comfort of explosions to anything warm and fuzzy.) So, the hubs takes my temperature, and concocts various household remedies to stave off what just might be the flu or a brain aneurysm. I just laugh and sigh.

Hubs means well. He just doesn’t quite understand that during this time of year, I need to believe in the magic of the everyday. With the crazy that’s in my face (almost literally) every working day from Black Friday till December 26th (and sometimes beyond) I need to believe in these little bits of magic. Like the magic of watching the world outside slowly wind down and go to sleep. I like seeing the water droplets clinging to the naked branches outside, and can’t wait for that moment when I wake to see that those droplets are frozen in place. It’s like seeing a moment preserved.

In these moments, I feel a little like Mulder in X-Files: “I want to believe.” I want to believe in the beauty of the everyday. I want to believe that most people want to be generous and kind. I want to believe that there are still noble and virtuous people in this world that are worth fighting for. I want to believe that there are others out there who can enjoy the magic of contentment and satisfaction outside of material things. I want to believe.

So, here I am, looking outside, thankful for this time of rest and quiet that are essential for those times when growth and strength are required, and am enchanted that nature instinctively “gets this.” It also reminds me to stay curious, because there’s always more going on behind the scenes, more beneath the surface. There may be other things that motivate the craziness I’ve seen, more things that I have a right to know or understand, and upon which I should tread lightly.

For now, I have my smooth, black coffee, my view of a magical world, and the promise of a day that just might surprise and delight me. And, if not, I can always watch a heart-warming holiday movie. Like, Die Hard.

Just Finish

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I love that moment when the end is in sight. It gives me that second wind that I didn’t know I had. It’s that feeling of sprinting the last 100 yards of a run and believing that I’m almost flying; of pushing that one last set of weights and knowing “I got this;” of seeing the culmination of my many well-laid plans come together, more or less, and knowing that whatever the result, I know that I did my best. Self-doubt has already been burned away, completely destroyed in the face of seeing the end. And, at that moment, there is no next time yet, so I don’t need to reflect on my performance, nor strategize how to run faster, push harder, and, overall, be better.

That moment is all about feeling unstoppable, and reveling in the knwledge that I’ve already won, I just need to finish.

Just. Finish. And then, celebrate your success, whatever it may be.

{Shinedown hasn’t made a music video of their studio recording of “Fly From the Inside,” but I enjoyed this youtube interpretation of that song.}