NaNoWriMo

November 2, 2013

Friday’s High			70
Friday’s Low			37
Days in Las Cruces			131
Steps/Miles walked June 2013(in Las Cruces)		73,509	36.8
Steps/Miles walked July 2013		215,276	107.64
Steps/Miles walked August 2013		217,546	108.77
Steps/Miles walked September 2013		251,186	125.6
Steps/Miles walked October 2013		300,043	150.0
Steps/Miles walked Friday		11,028	5.5
Total Steps/Miles walked in Las Cruces		1,068,642	534.3

Well, another month is gone, and November is here. Friday morning, I was looking at my “Walking Calendar” for 2013. Since June, I’ve been increasing my daily goal by 500 steps per day, each month. So, in July, my step goal was to walk 6500 steps a day. In August, it was 7000. October, my goal was to walk 8000 steps per day, every day, for the entire month.

So, I was really happy to see that I had actually walked 300,000 steps in October, which averages out to something over 9,600 steps a day. For November, my goal was to walk 8500 steps a day. And early in 2014, I planned to reach 10000 steps a day. I just moved my entire goal forward, so this month, the target is to walk 10000 steps a day. I can do it! I hope.

Yesterday was the first day of the annual NaNoWriMo competition. That’s “National Novel Writing Month.” The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. If you succeed, you win! Everyone who succeeds is a winner. Personally, I think anyone who tries is a winner. I don’t think there’s any prize, though a few publishers do offer to read your work if you actually finish the novel in that time.

As part of the event, groups of aspiring writers gather throughout the month. Yesterday there were two such meetings. At the first we just chatted for a couple of hours, getting to know each other. At the second, I arrived early enough that I was able to write about a thousand words before others showed up. One of the women who attended the first got to the second one at the same time I did, so we sat together in one of the “Living Rooms” at Barnes & Noble.

There were six for this second meet up, one of whom is a published author, and teaches several different type of writing courses through the local community college. I should add that the woman who arrived at the same time as I is a grad student in writing, and as a TA teaches writing as well.

All told, yesterday I wrote 5,570 words. That’s pretty darn good, if you ask me!

DAILY GRATITUDE

Well, I guess for my daily gratitude, I will continue through my senses. Today, I am grateful for my sense of touch. I’m grateful for the feeling of gentle breezes blowing, and puppy dog breaths on my cheek at night. (Thank you Ixchel!) I’m thankful for that delighted sense of feeling warm, after coming in from the cold, and for cuddling beneath soft blankets on a chilly night.

And, yes, I am grateful for the feeling of Scott’s hand in mine. And other places!

I am especially grateful for my sense of touch, though, for another reason. There are parts of my body that no longer have a sense of feeling. There is a patch on my right leg, for example, that is numb; I cannot feel anything when it contacts clothing or other things. And there are other parts of me, as well, where feeling is either gone altogether, or is greatly diminished. Because of that loss, I am grateful for what has not yet been lost!

PRAYER INTENTIONS

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” — Psalm 8:1

This week’s prayer intention is “the Sacred”.