Late fall. Early winter. The promise of snow in the air. Sweaters and scarves finding their way back into my closet. My two favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) quickly approaching. This time of year might be my favorite and busiest. First of all, there’s the holidays and all that that means. Thanksgiving dinners for three apartment complexes. Traveling back and forth to Willcox. Shopping for just the perfect, meaningful gifts. Weeks of baking. Calendars spotted with Christmas parties and get-togethers. The overwhelming need to hand-craft trinkets to accompany everyone of my friend’s Christmas cards. Then, add all of that to one of the busiest times of year in the college campus environment. Registration for spring semester courses. Finals. Course evaluations. Hiring and 32 student evaluations. System upgrades and implementations as soon as the semester is over and before the Christmas break. Yeah, while they are supposed to be filled with family, fun, and a reminder of God’s goodness, November and December can be a bit overwhelming and all-together stressful.
But, 2007 is going to be different.  I’ve already scheduled goals for all that needs to be done in the next few months and started contemplating Christmas gifts. I’ve got my excel document ready to schedule the baking of 20 full-sized turkeys in 8 hours and budget the feeding of 600 people. I’ve been striving to let my preparation relieve the stress of what should be a joyous time. Yet, somehow within all of my prep and planning, I’ve found inspiration and a desire to step out of my comfort zone in the desire of one of my close friends to accomplish a personal goal. For as long as I’ve known Eric, he has spoken with passion about his desire to write… to create… to put soul to paper. And in this season of families congregating and work deadlines, he is pushing his goal to the forefront and taking the first step of goal fulfillment. He has entered NaNoWriMo.

You might ask yourself… What is NaNoWriMo? To quote the WriMo’s, themselves, “NaNoWriMo or the National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” Yeah, you heard that right, a 50,000 word novel in a month. That’s something like 1,667 words a day. Are you sensing my awe and the source of my inspiration?

No, no, no, no. I will not be a WriMo this year. There is no novel welling up inside of me… yet. My style… my voice finds comfort in being surrounded by the intimate yet informal walls of this blog. I’m not saying that there will never be a novel flowing out from my fingertips. Let’s be honest, I’ve already come of with great names for my would-be writings, Everything Your Kids Didn’t Tell You About the BSM and You Just Can’t Make This Shizz Up, but their time hasn’t come.
My heart at this moment, though, is buried in the desire to try something new. Something for me. To take the time each and everyday to be creative and share my life and God’s grace with you. So, I’ve decided to hop on another passing train, NaBloPoMo. NaBloPoMo is a informal sister group/challenge of NaNoWriMo. Instead of writing a novel in the month of November, PoMo’s make a commitment to post in their blogs everyday during the month of November. This challenge is perfect for me for a few reasons. One, it forces me to write… to spill those words I’ve been keeping inside… to put soul to paper and share me with those around me. Second, it helps me transition my writings from private, dear diary-like posts that never see the light of day to more public vignettes of my life.

Today is day 1, and I’m excited to see where these next thirty days take me. I’m sure you’ll hear funny/awkward stories, see my good and bad days, be introduced or maybe reacquainted with some great music, and even get a recipe or two. I even have a few friends who are joining me on this quest in their own blogs, and we’ll visit them a bit later in the month. In the words of Steven Curtis Chapman, ‘Saddle up your horses; we gotta trail to blaze. Through the wild blue yonder of God’s amazing grace.’