A Month-Long Experiment in Wordage

I have recently noticed some bloggers participating in the #reverb10 "reflect on this year & manifest what's next" exercise. This sounds like a beautiful idea. I'm in.

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

2010's word is BABY. Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby. I was 5 months pregnant with my first child in January. I had quit working already, and every second of every day was devoted to maintaining my health and the health of the baby. It was a difficult pregnancy rife with exhaustion, lots of doctor appointments, leg swelling, and painful feet. The baby was due mid-May, but we were scared by contractions happening at the end of February. Those contractions were stopped, only to continue again at the end of March, when a bad turn in my health meant baby had to come out 7 weeks early. It's been a whirlwind ever since of daily visits to the NICU when she was there for her first 20 days, and then caring for a premature infant when we brought her home, to colic for the next 6 months, and now, finally, I'm able to care for her, myself, and even get some chores done, too. All eyes are still on the baby, but that's because she is just too cute to ignore!

I hope that 2011 brings more... how do I put it? Understanding? Maybe assurance in what I'm doing? I certainly want less craziness. Yeah, I guess assurance, self-assurance, is the word.


December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

Wasting time on the internets. No doubt. Facebook, stupid games, manga, etc... nothing to contribute to anything. I got swept up in the belief of, "I'm pumping! I can't do ANYTHING, so I might as well waste time." And waste time I have done, so very many times. Just because I'm pumping breast milk doesn't mean I can't write, or create something. It's disheartening to look back over this past year and realize just how very little I have accomplished. I'm not a writer per se... my blog has only a few followers and I don't have any other writing projects, but it is still nice to create something.

Yes, internet time-suckage can certainly be eliminated, if not drastically reduced. Just look at me now, writing this blog post instead of zoning out in front of Sudoku. ^_^ I'm proud.