31,536,000 Moments

So I'm sitting here, January 1, 11:10 in the AM, kids mulling about (we have three extra this morning), drinking a Pepsi One (of course) and eating a salami, swiss and sliced green olive (yep) on sour dough, which is all left over from last night's Roman feast. My mind is foggy and angsty and very typical after an evening of self-abuse.

And I'm thinking about writing.

And I'm thinking about this blog.

And I'm thinking about optimism and commitment and making the most of the 31,536,000 moments available to me this year.

See, I posted this list on Facebook where I mentioned my top 10 best moments in 2013. The responses were so wonderful and so supportive. And focusing on those 10 events with that kind of reinforcement made them seem bigger somehow.

But more importantly that focus also made all the difficult parts of the year smaller. There were so many. But I feel like I conquered them all. My family and I conquered them all. Those negative moments and awful events are now frozen corpses on the tundra, and I have returned to my home, torn but whole. And stronger.

And even though I did manage to put down several thousand words in 2013, those words didn't make the list because I didn't finish anything. Writing is great, and as writers we like to say that the most important thing is to just get words down. But that's not really true. It's a classic support group copout. Writing is important to be sure. It's tied for first place. But also in there is to finish, to see the project to the end and make it great. And in that I failed. I have excuses why. But they are only excuses.

So here I am, back on my blog with a new year and a new commitment.

Write something here about my project, about my work, every day of 2014. Make this spot my writer's conscience, where I must report daily about my progress, or lack thereof. Even if the post is only one sentence.

Like this: Today, my dear patient blog that I have ignored since early last year, I will open Scrivener on the "big computer" and read through all of my notes, outline and rough writes on Twin Waters and put myself back into the story...

right after I take down this damn tree.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.


Thanks for reading. Off to... take down this damn tree... write.


Casey

 

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