Day Ten and the Quiet Part, Out Loud

Morning Journal

Friday 11/10/23

08:26

After this journal entry, I’m gonna consume 400mg of Advil and 500mg of Tylenol, then watch the 1956 Kaiju classic, Rodan (Japanese language original with English subtitles), while contemplating today’s blog post about the depth of introspection that comes when one blogs for 30 days straight, as those days get shorter, and darker, and colder, and how this can’t really be good for humans to force themselves through; the writing, OR the reading.  Because, don’t we already have enough trauma in our everyday lives, without forcing even more of it down on top of us by dredging it up from the swamp that is beneath us, or some other shit-based reason to do it? 

Yeah, “Day Ten and the Quiet Part, Out Loud”.  I like that title.

Hopefully, this shit writes itself.

As it has been, with each passing year, it feels like, for me… and I can only speak for me… that it gets harder and harder, year to year, to complete the task of NaBloPoMoIng.  I, like any number of other bloggers, whether blogging is their principal platform of creative expression or not, run right into genuine reasons for slamming on the brakes during a November blog run.  Or even, as has been the case a few times since my first November back in 2015, just not starting at all.

Remember, there are no small reasons for missing blog seasons.

Yesterday, I wrote about how, instead of making National Blog Posting Month the raison d’ệtre for my November writing, and by default, the ONLY reason I had to write consistently all year long, that this year, I finally had other reasons.  Other, long-term reasons, to make the discipline of writing everyday an actionable part of my life, starting now, and continuing forward into 2024 and beyond. 

And that’s where I think I’m headed in all this talk about trauma, and heaping even more trauma on top of it.  How it’s okay, even preferable, to allow a little hurt in, now, while we may have just a little bit more motivation for us to sit and squirm, with the blank screen lighting up our early mornings, or late nights.  Because writing all the way through November could lead us into things we’ve always wished we would do, but never got around to, what with all the emphasis on these 30 days a year, and not the long-term pleasure that might end up coming our way… after.

And with that, here’s my encouragement, to make it all the way through the end of November, not missing a day.  And here also is my encouragement, to not.  It’s all up to you, and all up to why you wanted to do this challenge in the first place, because whichever way, or whatever combination it is, November Blog Month is here for you, and not the other way around. 

So, be encouraged, or encourage others, or any combination you feel good with, because this month is for you, in any way that you come away from it feeling better about the experience, and in whatever form that takes.

Talk to you tomorrow.