Writing on A Full Stomach

Through the history of this page, there was only one occasion where I wrote a piece on the day after Thanksgiving. It was the first year of my postings, so every entry had to count. It was surprisingly devoid of comments about the Thanksgiving feast the previous day, so there's every chance that I wrote it ahead of time then dropped it into the blog at some point between turkey sandwiches and fall clean-up. However, I can guarantee that this piece is being written the day after Thanksgiving as I ride out the calorie crash, still digesting the two or three full plates of food I ate yesterday.

For writers in particular, Thanksgiving should be an opportunity to see how far we've come over the past year and appreciate whatever gains we have made. If we participated in NaNoWriMo, then a pat on the back is deserved whether we finished it or not. If we set out any task or goal and pursued it, then let's be thankful for those things as well. Since writing is all about growth, when we set out to do something, we've already won, even if we didn't finish it. We just "failed up," as people like to say.

This year I explored the creative side-products of being a writer, and that's exploring other things that might make for a good story. I danced and sang, I went to new places and did new things, and even set myself on a new life trajectory. Whether I did these things successfully (and I guarantee that with dancing, I did not) is not the point. The point was to stretch out that creative zone - the supposed "box" we are supposed to think outside of - and let more experiences and opportunities come naturally. I think next year there might have to be some improv. I'm at that point in life where trying out what I have wanted to do for years can't hurt, and if it is a failure, it's not like I ruined a career opportunity; I just took a step that I wanted to. Nothing wrong with that.

As my regular and semi-regular readers know, I lost several people in my writing community this year, and I also recently lost my mother. Mourning losses such as these takes time, but I did grant myself a little time to be thankful for having known them. It isn't closure by any sense, it just reminds me that my life is different and better for those interactions. And with regard to my writing friends, I would've never known any of them if I hadn't stepped outside of my secure space and joined the workshops they participated in or facilitated. Plenty of people went their entire life without meeting those friends of mine, but I got that opportunity. Thank you.

More to the point, as a writer, I now have a fresh stock of things and stuff to incorporate into my style and my ways of saying things in general. Letting those become part of my stock and trade will be part of this coming year's process, as will many other adventures I have yet to encounter. However, for now I have to settle back in my chair and finish the last of the leftovers while watching Friday college football (which I will never get used to). But as a writer, I can already say that I am full from the past year of writing, and look forward to the next one.