NaNoWriMo Excitement!

I saw the odd word posted in my friend's facebook update last year. NaNoWriMo. Immediately I googled it.... National Novel Writer's Month. I was impressed. My friend, (and his mother) had signed up to participate. All they had to do was write their 50,000 word novel in one month! Knowing them both to be intelligent, creative people, I wished them well.

I knew, of course, that I could never complete a novel. But, I felt inspired by the emails sent out by the authors who had succeeded. If nothing else, I would develop a stronger commitment to my writing. I would gain knowledge in how to organize my life around my writing instead of allowing myself moments of luxury for writing.

I added up the days in November. I divided them into 50,000 just to have an idea of how many words those other writers would be completed, on average, per day. That comes out to 1667 words a day. Wow, I was impressed!

But, wait a minute. Wasn't I already writing that much every day? Emails to friends far away, journal entries of my daily life, blog postings to my too many blogs, messages to the patients in my Chondrosarcoma Support Group. I was online a lot! So, I began to re-think the possibilities. I calculated further. If one were to write at 50 words a minute, my average, one could complete 3,000 words in an hour. Of course, I realized that the words might not flow into my mind that quickly, so I figured if I were to average 30 words a minute I could manage 1800 words a day, providing the creative juices were flowing and my muse was on my side. I realized wouldn't have to sit for a straight hour to do this. I could break it down to four sessions of 15 minutes each. That would give me time to think about my story line, in the time in between work sessions. So, I signed up!

I suspended all the automatic emails I recieve from various sites. I announced to my facebook friends I would be lost to them for the month. I posted a lot of November's blog ahead of time, so they would be automatic. I even stopped myself from dropping into my support group ten times a day.

On the third week, I went into a slump. I avoided the computer. Upon questioning, I printed out what I had created and asked a friend to read it. She was so enthusiatic that I went back to my writing. Lo and behold, by the end of the month, I had written a little over the "required" 50,000 words.

It was in no way, "a novel". Of course, it would need revision. I took a break in December and let my New Year's resolution be to work on it further. As time went by, I began to slide. I got involved in a poetry writing group, then a few months later, a memoirs writing group. The revisions to my novel? Forgotten.

So, here we are again. A new idea has inspired me. This time, I've worked on an outline, made notes of ideas, and worked out some scenes and timelines before I started.

It's NaNoWriMo time!

Gift of Cremation

Something that cremation provides that burial does not, is the opportunity for the bereaved to have a part of the person they loved to be with them. Though the "remains" must be buried or the ashes spread over water, or some other method of dispersal, the bereaved can have a part of the ashes in a small urn, or in my mother's case, she was able to have a small necklace with a sealed container of Dad's ashes. She could have a sense that he was with her. She died a little over a year later. This time, as a family, we were able to respect the original wish of cremation without "all the fuss". But something unexpected and quite miraculous, in my opinion occurred with her death.

All her life my mother wanted to leave her body to science. She had a rare medical condition. She hoped it would help to provide an opportunity for research, perhaps make a new inroad of knowledge about her condition that might help future generations who might be affected by the same condition.

Since we had spent so much money on Dad's funeral, we were strapped to afford Mom's cremation, even though the cost was less. We learned through Hospice of an organization which will provide the cremation free, if the body is donated for scientific research.

Though Mom died and we were grieved, it was incredibly comforting to know Mom's lifelong wish had come true. It actually gave us much happiness, and now that she was gone too, final closure. We still had grief, and still miss her and Dad, the circumstances provided us with comfort. In our case, we had lavished flowers throughout life. And so, we did not need them. The beauty was in our love for each other as a family.