November 1, only 58 days until my 60th birthday.  Here is how the last year of my sixth decade of life is shaping up.

I began the year having created a list of 60 things that I  wanted to accomplish by my sixtieth birthday.  The long and short of it is that at this point I have checked many items off the list, but there are also a number  that are likely not going to happen by the end of the year…and that is OK.  In making the list in the first place, I took the time to think about experiences and goals that I thought I wanted to do or needed to accomplish.  As the year has progressed, I have learned which of these are truly important to me and which ones only sounded good at the time I was making the list.  That in itself has been a worthy journey of discovery.

#12 on my list (numbers are random and insignificant) is to document the this year in writing, specifically through sixty weekly blog posts.  Since it is now November and my last post was in April, obviously I have failed at weekly posts.  This is odd to me since the one thing that I thought that I wanted to do when I retired was to write more.  I have done some writing- monthly devotionals for church, photography prompts for 365 Picture Today, personal journaling- but I’ve neglected this space.  My focus certainly has not been on the kind of writing I thought I wanted to be doing.  I’m not sure that this was a conscious decision.  Nonetheless, it is the choice that was made somehow, some way.  This here is a classic example of life is what happens while you are busy making plans.

My original intention with the 60 by Sixty list was to experience  and learn  new things.  So what have I learned from failing at weekly posts?  

Like the navigation system in cars says, “rerouting.”  Sometimes you get where you are going via a different route than planned.  By doing so, you see different things and you learn different lessons, perhaps more important ones..  Apparently the left-brain perfectionist that I am, or that I was, has learned to chill out and relax a little.  After nearly sixty years of living as a tightly wound logic-driven perfectionist, this may be the most valuable lesson of the year!

Another thing that is on my list is to participate in the National Novel Writing Month, which takes place this month.  The goal here is to write a complete draft of a novel, roughly 50,000 words, during the month of November.  I did do some of the preliminary work on this project earlier in the year, but I did not follow through with that preparation.  Another writing failure in 2021.  I’m a little disappointed with myself on this one, but my chilled out self is saying, “Be kind to yourself.  If it truly is important for you to do this, you will do it.  Maybe next year or the next year.  Apparently this was not the right year for you to write a novel.”  I’m not sure where this chilled out me came from, but I kind of like her!

Here comes the rerouting…

Here I am, accepting the fact that I am not prepared to write every day as part of the National Novel Writing Month; but, realizing that I can write a blog post every day this month.  Is that a cop out or a compromise?  Hmmm….

A cop out is defined as avoiding something that one should do.  One way to look at compromise is something that combines the qualities of two different things.  That said, I’m going with compromise.  I will write everyday; i just won’t write a novel.  I will get back to sharing more of my list and items that I actually have accomplished!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you’ll join me over the next thirty days of writing…not a novel.