Monakhos

Along with Jon, I partook last month in National Novel Writing Month. It was an interesting challenge, as I had never even attempted to write a novel before. Usually I am able to finish what I need to say in the length of a short story or less. I took a chance and tried it, though, and I suceeded. My manuscript ended up just over the goal of 50,000 words.

Now the task of editing begins. Fortunately I think the story is almost done at this point and just needs some touching up, but we will see. If all goes as planned, I should be able to have a second draft ready for some friends to read by the new year and then have a complete package together a few months after that.

Writing this novel was nice because too often I start tasks and then leave them before they are complete. It is just too easy to get distracted by something else. I may work a few days or weeks on a musical project and then before it is done move on to some different musical task or something else entirely. Learning how to finish something was a good experience for me.

Anyway, that’s my update for the day. Now that NaNoWriMo is over with, I should have some more time to post. One of my goals for the coming year is to write more, so some of that will probably end up appearing here.

Though the world changes
And time passes by
I remain resolute
Awaiting death and dawn
Reborn anew
Rising from the ashes
I will be incarnate
No more questions
Or faltering
I am here incarnate in you
A new day begins
Life reawakens
I am

I met a new friend last night and I thought I would introduce him. He’s a little shy and so I don’t know his name yet, but he did agree to pose for a few pictures.

We had a lot of fun the past day. He’s been with me everywhere. It’s nice to have someone to talk to who you know is never going to judge you and is always going to be there to listen.

Anyway, here he is. Go ahead and say hello. I’ll show him your greetings.

At least in this body, life is finite. Am I making the best of it? Am I furthering myself or creating hindrances to advancement? Am I making decisions that help me fulfill my purpose?

Just a few things I’m thinking about.

I don’t know where all of this is coming from, but suddenly there are a million things to write about. Two new words for today. I don’t think this will become a long series or anything, but they just keep popping up. These two tie into some of yesterday’s words, namely rat race, and value.

Creation

Too few people (at least in Western culture) create things anymore. I know for me, I always think of things to create and then get bogged down and run out of time. I’ve had four days of vacation the past two weeks and meant to make a lot things and even prepared to create, but then in the end ran out of time.

For me its a combination of things I have to do and distractions. For now at least, I have to do what I have to do, but I can cut down on distractions. One thing I have been trying to do lately is to hibernate the computer whenever  I’m not using it. I waste way too much time on the Internet. It has helped somewhat (and it’s hopefully saving me a little on electricity too), but I still need to find more ways to cut out these distractions so I can get back to creating.

Another aspect of creation that bother’s me is how much we as a society (and myself) are dependent on things created by exploited workers of big corporations. So much creation has been outsourced that it doesn’t seem healthy. Maybe it’s a silly view, but it seems like one day we’re going to find out that we don’t really make anything and are just running an imaginary economy of things made by other people.

Independence

Achieving freedom from the things in the universe that are holding me back. The more value I can create myself, the less dependent I will be on other entities. For example, if I grow my own tomatoes, I don’t have to go to the grocery store and buy them and I can dictate the kind and quality, the chemicals or lack of chemicals that help them grow or keep them from being killed by bugs, and so on.

I’ll continue to elaborate on these more as my thoughts solidify.