November 2, 2013

On NaNo and Curveballs

I took this picture late at night on October 31st.  I planned to post it as early as possible yesterday, November 1st, announcing to the world that I was doing NaNo.
 
I thought I was prepared.
 
Then, I got up yesterday morning and found out that my great-grandfather had passed away.
 
My plans for that day – this entire weekend, actually – were dissolved within seconds.  Instead of babysitting for six hours, writing for two, then going to a bonfire at a friend's house, I babysat for three, then went to visit my grandparents and great-grandma.
 
And you know what?  With each thing that I remembered I had wanted to – with each phone reminder that went off – I gave in a little more.  By the end of the day, as I hit "Dismiss" on the last NaNo-related phone reminder, I had relented.
 
It was okay that I wasn't getting what I wanted to get done.  It was okay that, instead of trying to figure out a good opening line for my fourth chapter, I was eating food that my great-grandma had placed before me.
 
It's great to surrender.  Sure, it's hard at first, but there are multiple blessings that come out of it when you've finally given God all of your expectations.
 
Even though I felt like I wasn't getting anything done as I rode in the car, I checked my word count at the end of the day – when Jarvis (my laptop) gave me a low battery warning – I had reached about a hundred words over my daily word count goal.  No, it wasn't the five thousand words I had wanted to come out of the gate with, but God had seen fit to allow me to reach my word count.
 
And that's a blessing.
 
-Eowyn-

2 comments:

Kirsten Fichter said...

God works in mysterious ways. I'm sorry to hear about your great-grandfather. Praying for you and your family. :(

I just want to say I'm really thankful you wrote this post today. Usually, I find myself stressing out about NaNo, pulling my hair out over word counts and all, but you're right. Sometimes all we have to do is give our best, putting aside all stress related to getting the perfect word count, and God will give us the little blessings. And this NaNo is going to be an interesting one for me, considering my oldest sister is away from home this month caring for my grandparents, so I have to step into her shoes as well as manage my own chores and NaNo. I was hoping for 5K words yesterday, too, but I only got 2700. Surrendering doesn't mean the end. It only means taking a step back to see what God can do.

So, thanks for sharing your blessing and being a blessing to us all!

Katelyn said...

Praying for you and your family! Missed you today.