Giving Thanks
Today is Thanksgiving 2008 and my family and I are spending it quietly at home. The turkey (breast only) is in the oven along with the broccoli and rice casserole. And I’ve already nibbled on the cranberry bread with cream cheese. Yum!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it’a all about community. No gifts are expected, except maybe food or wine. The couch is crowded with family and friends. This is a quiet year for us but it makes it all the sweeter. For Mark’s and my first nine years of marriage, he worked on every Thanksgiving. Around 3 pm, I would bring in plates of food for him and all the rest of the pharmacists on duty. It wasn’t home–it was the hospital’s breakroom. But it felt like family nonetheless.
This year I am especially mindful of the family members I have adopted throughout all our cross country moves. I love my parents, grandma, sisters, nieces, nephews, in-laws, cousins, uncles and aunts. And they can all be found in Michigan, holding a place for me everytime I come to visit.
But I also appreciate the girlfriends, couple friends, kids and families who have adopted us along the way. From Michigan to Atlanta, North Carolina and back to Ohio, our extended family stretches across the miles. Some I talk to weekly; some I see monthly for coffee or at the grocery store. Some get a Christmas card and photo from us but remain on my mind all twelve months of the year. And some have left this earthly plain.
Regardless, I feel rich in community. I am well loved and I hope my loved ones know how well they are loved back. And for that I am thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
N@
Have Written
This month is National Novel Writing Month and I am once again participating. I “won” last year, finishing an unreadable and at times embarrassing novel in 30 days. This year I had an awesome concept for my next fiction book but I have not been able to find the time to finish the non-fiction book currently making the rounds. So instead I am writing non-fiction this year.
It is still a phenomenal experience–writing a book. Since I am a writer by trade, I am often told, “Oh, I always wanted to write a book.” A survey shows 81% of Americans want to write a book but less than 1% actually do. And as my college professor, Wally Metts always said,
“No one wants to write a book. They want to have written a book.”
Each day I struggle to log off my work computer, after having written press releases, web copy and blog posts for my clients. The last thing I really want to do is start writing again. I write my NaNo book on my beat-up laptop, on the couch, at Paneras with the DANG group, in the WordWorker’s writing studio, in Barnes and Nobles or anywhere else I can find. It’s not always fun. It certainly isn’t romantic. No one applauds as I complete my daily word allotment. It’s work.
And sadly, when November is over, I still won’t be done. Then comes the hard work of editing, fixing, tweaking, reworking and editing again. All of this work goes into a book that has no promises of being published.
But at the end of it all, I will be one of the 1% who has successfully written a book. I will have relayed the message that is on my heart. I will have been obedient to the call I hear in my head.
I will have written.
N@