Here We Go... One Day Word at a Time

Well, I couldn't help myself. Shamelessly starting this post off with my team's logo. And why not... they've now won three out of seven, and with one more win (in three more tries), we'll--okay they'll--be World Champions.

Though not to get ahead... as they say, anything can happen in baseball. As they say, it's one day--one game--at a time.


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I now have an "I am a member of NaBloPoMo" badge front and center on my blog. It looks so official. And intimidating... It means I have to write. If I skip even one day, I can no longer be officially participating. For the past few days, I've felt like a cornered, trapped animal, acitively wondering why in the world I publicly made this commitment, how I can possibly do this; essentially making a very big psychological mountain out of a molehill. It's writing for goodness sakes. Something I really love doing. Something I want to do more of! It's not like I promised to run five miles a day for thirty days, it's not like I promised not to swear, or always drive the speed limit, or keep my kitchen clean... you know, the really challenging things. Still, if I think about it too hard... my god, thirty posts in thirty days... yikes.

Though last night, watching my much-loved team, with their can-do attitude as responsible as anything for their success, I felt something shift. Sitting poised at the starting gate, I began to sense possibility. I began to taste a wee bit of excitement; I felt some wonder, about the empty slate of these next thirty days; curiosity about words and pages and posts... and just where this month might take me.

Hmm... excitment, wonder, curiosity, possibility...

I tell the women in my writing groups that when we write, it's like getting on a train whose destination is a mystery. Our job is merely, simply, to hop on... Beyond that, if we're lucky, we are given over completely to the ride; thought stops, everything around us fades, words are scrawled onto paper. Beyond that, if we are lucky, we stop worrying about destination and surrender to the thrill of it. I tell them to trust their pens, trust their words, their hearts, themselves; trust whatever it is that wants to be written, wherever it is their words take them.

One day at a time. The Twelve-Step mantra. Also the ballplayers, in their own words these past few days and weeks, not thinking about winning the series, but focusing instead on playing one game at a time. I will take my cue from them. I will forget about the bigger picture, the intimidating one wherein I am supposed to write and publish a post a day for the next month. Instead it will be about today... Today I will write. Today. I will only think about tomorrow when it becomes today, and not before.

In fact, beyond that, and in the spirit of mindfulness, I will only think about the day's writing when I'm actually sitting down and doing it. Not just one day at a time. But one word at a time. Each day I will hop aboard that train, destination unknown, and give myself over to words. It's the heart and soul of the creative process. It's what I love about the prcoess. It's what I love about writing.

It's what I LOVE about writing.

Yipee, the wheels are moving and I'm on the way!

See you tomorrow... oh, yeah, and GO GIANTS!