Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Comfort of Quitting

My niece Laura took this picture
I quit.

I quit trying to "win" NaNoWriMo.  Winning would have meant writing 50,000 words of a so-called novel in the 30 days of November.   I started off strong, believing that this was my "winning" year.  As of a few days ago, I have put away NaNoWriMo writing for 2010.  Quitting means that, for the fifth year in a row, I have played and not won.

My inner Pollyanna has struggled a little bit this time in her efforts to turn quitting into winning.  She's a persistent one, though, and has declared that, indeed, I quit one thing so I could win:  
  • The opportunity to spend three whole days, and two partial days, with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
  • Some deliciously long conversations with cherished friends and family.
  • A few sacred, unencumbered days to walk with a family through the death of their 45 year old relative.
  • The joy of writing and writing and writing on the so-called novel, and now I have won back the joy of a more relaxed writing schedule for sermons, blog posts, and whatever else I want to write.
  • Some much-needed goof-off time.  Did I say much needed?
And ... I won the once-in-a-lifetime chance to make 2011 the year I win NaNoWriMo for the first time!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The only thing you QUIT, dear friend, is the insanity and tyranny of trying to live by priorities that are not of your own making. Way to go, sistah!