A Matter of Perspective

NanoWriMo ended on November 30. While I did not reach the 50,000 word goal, I did get 38,000+ words written. I am pretty pleased with that number. Almost 40,000 words. That ended up being an average of 1267 words per day.

I am working on fleshing those words out into a bit longer chapters. What had originally began as an idea for one book about 20 years ago is now a book series with a prequel already published! The series itself will have four books. I’m excited about this.

November 30 also happened to be my birthday. I turned 59.

I have learned a few things in those 59 years.

I have learned that I can’t take everything at face value. Sure, a $10 bill is a $10 bill, but how I choose to spend that money could drastically change the value of it.

I have learned that not everything is my problem. I used to hold myself responsible for a lot of things I had nothing to do with. Other people’s poor decisions—while they may affect me—are not my fault.

I have learned that if someone doesn’t like me, it is their loss. I can feel sad about it, but beating myself up over something I can’t really change isn’t going to do me any good.

I have learned that life goes on. This was a hard one for me after the loss of my mom. Honestly, this was a lesson I did NOT want to learn. But I did and now I realize that bad and sad things can tear you apart but you can’t let them destroy you.

I have learned to put my energy into doing more things that I love doing. Like writing and spending time with my grandchildren.

I have learned that we only live once. If I want to do something I need to do it because no one else is going to do it for me.

A lot of the things I have learned have been in the last few years. I can be quite stubborn about learning new things—or accepting them— so it takes me a while.

But the lessons have now been learned and with hope, I will be able to share some wisdom with others!