A Thankful Heart

Well hello, friends. It feels great to return to the blog. The month has rushed by and those thoughts to update my blog never turned into action. I do apologize but promise, it has been time well-spent in other areas.

I don’t know about you but I love November. The cold comes but it is not that terrible bone-chilling frostiness yet. The leaves remaining on the trees are beautiful autumn shades. Best of all, so many people use this month as a time to reflect on the many gifts in their lives. While in the best of cases we find ourselves grateful all year, sometimes we need a reminder to look for the many things, big and small, to be appreciative for. 

This year has been a pretty monumental one for me.  So I am going to use today’s post to reflect on the many gifts of 2013, even those I couldn’t recognize as such at first. Funny how that happens.

I’m thankful I left teaching and can very honestly say I am happy with the decision. I couldn’t admit that for quite awhile. It was time for a change and when I finally embraced that, let myself off the hook for not being a “forever teacher” – there was a lot of peace in this. 

I’m unbelievably thankful for the gift of friendship. My parents live out of state and I have no living siblings. My friends are so often the closest thing to family here. From my teacher comrades, Delta Zeta sorority sisters, my wacky writer pals, Passion heart sisters, Girl Scout moms, and my new fabulous library friends, I count myself remarkably blessed.

I’m thankful I got sick again. For those of you who don’t know, I started 2013 in the hospital recovering from a complete hysterectomy. While that wasn’t awesome, there are major life lessons in getting sick and the recovery process. Coming out the other side, you see the fragility and strength in the human body. I am constantly amazed by it. You find out who is willing to drop everything and run to your aid and even better, discover how to then pay that help forward.

I am thankful and proud to work for a nonprofit (St. Charles City-County Library Foundation). When you do work that feeds your soul, it doesn’t feel like work.

I am thankful to DuBray Middle School in Fort Zuwalt School District for supporting Madison as she began middle school in a brand new district. She is happy and thriving on Teal Team making this mom very relieved.

I am thankful our friends and family fighting in Afghanistan these last six months made it home safely. No words for this one, just relief.

I am thankful and excited to have all our kids here for Thanksgiving. My stepkids spend most of the year in PA, but Jeff is driving up today to get them. We are looking forward to spending the week together and sharing Thanksgiving with my family down in Memphis. It has been several years since we have been able to do this!

I am thankful to live in St. Charles County. We have an amazing community here and are doing great work. Small businesses, passionate nonprofits, safe schools, thriving industry, and a great library district – I love “our” side of the river.

I am thankful for my scars – my lifelines as my friend Patricia says. All fifteen of them serve as reminders that I am here and am strong enough to live this life. My scars are detours on life’s journey but ultimately, have provided me with unexpected opportunities, clarity, and appreciation. 

I wish you all a beautiful Thanksgiving, filled with whatever it is that makes you happy and thankful. -- Karen

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Is Gentle the New Strong?

    This month I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about. It happens. Sometimes I am full of ideas and other times, not so much. I turned to my trusty resource bank, the internet, to see if reading a few good writing blogs would suddenly ignite some inner hidden spark. Not sure that happened, but I did come across an article I found interesting in one of those “not sure how I feel about this kind of ways.” Maybe that just happens to me, but I doubt it.

    I focused my reading on character development. I think with the endless amount of Halloween costume ads and commercials right now I have characters on the brain. So I googled “strong characters” just to see what would pop up and happened upon a blog post by a woman named Sophia McDougall entitled “I Hate Strong Female Characters.” Well that got me intrigued! A female blogger raging against strong female characters? I had to be missing something.

    I reviewed her post to find McDougall’s issue is more about how women are either strong or weak and very little in between. In her opinion, labeling women as strong puts them in a box, continues to isolate, and prevents audiences from seeing them as equals to their male counterparts. It’s a rather long post but if you would like to check it out, here you go: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters

     And now my thoughts, for whatever they're worth. I found a good portion of this blog post rather frustrating. McDougall primarily focused on women’s strengths only in regard to their physicality - their ability to punch, kick, fight, etc. It was not until the very end that she finally connected strength with broader (and more important) ideas of peace, intelligence, compromise, resilience, perseverance, and commitment.

    When I think of strong female characters, Charlie’s Angels don’t come to my mind. Neither do any of those superheroes. To me, strong characters include the likes of Jane Eyre, Hermione Granger, Anne Frank, Prim Everdeen, and Jo March.

    What makes a female character strong in your opinion? Got a few favorites?

It's that time again

Ever thought about writing a novel? Does the idea race through your brain only to be kicked to the side by tiresome thoughts of laundry, dinner-making, grass-cutting and the like. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to give that notion some real thought. Mush it around up there in your ole’ noggin, stew on it for a bit if you will. Why? Well, because next month is November and that means it is Nanowrimo time baby!

Sorry, maybe you thought I miswrote – never did take typing lessons. I wrote “NA-NO-WRI-MO” - short for National Novel Writing Month. We get a whole month dedicated to trying this crazy idea of writing a complete novel or at least a large chunk of one. 

Nanowrimo runs from November 1-30. You need to write an average of 1,667 words per day to complete 50,000 words by the close of the month and complete this awesome quest. It can, in fact, be done. Here is the basic lowdown. Novels can be on any theme, in any genre of fiction, and in any language. Planning, outlining, and extensive notes are permitted, but no earlier written material can go into the body of the novel, nor are you allowed to start early and then finish 30 days from that start point. You have to stick to November! 

I’ve done some checking and sadly, Nano-leave is still not covered by private insurance or FMLA. So if you work, well, you still have to go to work. But those of you already retired or exploring career options, you are set! And those of us not, we need a good kick in pants to put our butts in the chair and write anyway. 

Now I know what you are thinking…. no one ever actually finishes this or does anything with their manuscripts. Oh contraire my blog reading doubters! Perhaps you’ve heard of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern or Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen? Yep, awesome Nano-novels!

Visit http://nanowrimo.org/ to join in on the madness, er, fun and see what you can accomplish. The official Nano forums provide a place for advice, information, criticism, support and an opportunity for what they lovingly call "collective procrastination.” The forums are already available since sign-up has begun as well.

There are already 49,137 people signed up for this year’s quest, quite an increase from the 21 people who originally took the challenge back in the first year (1999). An expected 200,000 writers will take up their pens (or tablets, laptops, etc) this year. 

Will you be one of this year’s Nano-ers? Come on, you know you want the t-shirt! 

Photo Credit: Nanowrimo.org

 

My kind of competition

    In case I haven’t shared, I really love my new job and for so many reasons. Reason 237: the St. Charles City-County Library District Book Blog. I get to blog about books I’ve read while I’m at work – someone pinch me (but not too hard). I'm sensitive after all. 

    The SCCCLD Book Challenge is a Competitive Reading Challenge. It is like kickball for literary nerds which is, in my opinion, AWESOME. Because if we are really being honest here, a good many of us aren’t exactly getting picked first for most sports teams. But this one, this one, I’m all over!

    To play, participants earn points for various categories including: reading the highest number of books, reading an award book, responding to blog posts, etc. I just started so I have a lot to make-up, but this also gives me an excuse to read. I can hear it now, “Sorry honey, I can’t cook dinner (ever), I have to finish my book for work.”

   Feel free to stop by the site and check out some of the great books already posted by the library staff from the various branches. http://scccldbc.blogspot.com