Kinky Boots

Tantalizingly close: 49,154. 

And so I take a pause, a thanksgiving, before stepping across that threshold.

Today I sat on a bluff in the Marin Headlands looking out over the ocean. The high fog had pulled back from the coast but was still overhead, blocking the direct rays of the sun. And yet, there it was, the invisible sun bouncing off the lagoon a thousand feet below me, reflecting brilliantly right up into my face.

For my evening's entertainment, two disparate sources converge. Michael Meade talking about the desiccation of fantasy and the healing power of imagination. Kinky Boots, a based-on-real-life movie about a family-run shoe factory that saves itself by making fetish footwear for drag queens. 

What do all these and NaNoWriMo have in common? The courage to start when you can't know the finish, trusting in true sources of inspiration (embodied, mythic) even when they are hidden, and searching beneath the surface for that fragile thread that binds us.

Oh, I know I'm waxing all philosophical. My impulse is to entertain instead. But I'm just feeling so grateful. And full of thanksgiving to you all.

Water Stops

NaNoWriMo is like running a marathon, complete with annoying hills, shin splints, and much needed water stops along the way. Today, I pulled into one of my very favorite 'water stops' and washed down some Gatorade-for-the-soul. It left me untethered and loose, spiritually limber. Refreshed, I regained my stride with goal of crawling inside my characters, feeling their embodied truth, and working (with reverence) from the inside out. Surely this will add to my word count. But knowing what a riot of energy and images live inside my own body, I expect I'll need a flashlight and some bread crumbs to find my way back out of theirs.

They say Week 2 is the hardest week of NaNoWriMo, the one during which most people falter. So leave comments to spur me on! Guilt, encouragement, accountability, public shaming . . . whatever it takes! My stride feels good right now. Heartbreak Hill is still weeks away. But a little cheering from the sidelines never hurts.