The Merits of Quitting

The past few weeks have passed in a blur.  We have been prepping for the insanity of the holiday season at work, life stuff has been crazy, and up until a few days ago I was buried in NaNoWriMo.  My knitting has been slow at best and I have hardly been baking at all let alone running enough, so there was nothing to there was nothing to blog about.  And reading?  Forget it.

So last week I made a decision.  I quit.  My novel had taken a distressing turn and I was not happy with the story at all.  I began this entire venture as a creative exercise with the caveat that if I did not enjoy it then I did not have to continue.  I tried to push through, despite being sick, despite finding my story mired in lethargy and hating all of my characters.  But at a certain point I found that it was not causing me to be more creative, but rather stifling the creativity I generally express.  I decided to spend a few days apart from my writing to see how it made me feel.  I went for a run and found that the world had changed.

The trails are now completely covered in these leaves.  It is insane, and beautiful, and challenging, and just in time for Thanksgiving.  And you know what? I was happy.  Happier than I had been in weeks.  I came home and read the latest two Dresden Files novels.  And cast on my Thanksgiving socks.

And I started baking again.  We went to visit Chris' parents for Thanksgiving and I came back with a serious pumpkin craving.  Yesterday I dug these out of the cabinet.

We don't have butter because we have not been to the grocery store, but I did some searching and found this recipe for cookies that use greek yogurt rather than butter.

They are, to say the least, a smashing success.

I will return to my novel.  Probably soon.  But I have discovered through this process that I am already creative in my daily life.  I cook, I make wearable art with bits of string, and I have you guys.  Writing for this blog brings me more joy than creating fiction and I am so thankful to have you, my readers, who I really do consider to be partners in this creative community we call the Internet.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Whatever part of the world you are in.