Make it 16. Pending editing.

Whew.

Someone once said that no one ever actually finishes writing a novel – you just give up. This wasn’t a novel, but the subject is potentially so vast, and I was charged with writing something short and sort of on the inspirational side of things, the same feeling applies. It’s one of those things where you get in the flow, you think it’s going well, but near the end you realize that you have absolutely no perspective, because you’re so close to it, and you’re faced with two choices:

1) Panic and think you need to massively redo everything. Maybe. Possibly.

2) Trust your instincts and be open to editing.

#2 is better. And less work. So I naturally tend to lean that way.

But yay. I spent the last hour organizing my notes and cleaning up the piles of books that accumulate during this process – in my study, in the living room and on the back porch. It feels so great. The best part (and this is strange) is that I can hardly wait to read something that has nothing to do with what I just wrote about..and to do so without feeling guilty! I am ridiculously excited about that.

So…the next few days will be occupied with a visit from the oldest (we finally just settled on IND – two hundred dollars less), getting Katie to do her end-of-the-year room shoveling, which will be difficult considering her busy social calendar, and sending up prayers for the safe travel of my dad and Hilary who are headed to Istanbul on Friday or Saturday, I think, where they will be for three days before heading out on an academically-oriented ancient history cruise of the Greek Isles – a well-deserved adventure!