November is a big month for doing something every day.  There’s NaNoMo, which is National Novel-Writing Month — the idea being that you’re supposed to write a certain number of words every day and at the end of the month you’ll have a sort-of framework for your novel.

Everyone I know who has done this has been wracked with guilt within the first week because they can’t keep up. Then they start devising plans to “make up” days they missed, such as writing for 13-hour blocks on the weekends. (By the way, if this sounds like a great idea to you and you want to give it a shot, you’re already screwed. It started yesterday.)

To me, it just sounds like a recipe for failure. It’s the writers’ equivalent of going on an all-beet diet to lose 30 pounds in 30 days. I love anything that gets people writing, but I fear that something like this just makes people feel like losers.

Happiness and joy

Then there’s the 30 Days of Gratitude that I’m always seeing on Facebook, where people post one thing they’re grateful for every day. I like this one, even though the rebellious teenager in me cringes at anything that’s too popular.

But then I remind myself that there’s no need to cringe at it because any day you wake up looking for something to be thankful about, well, that’s a good day.

Plus — positive stuff on Facebook? What a concept.

But for me? Gratitude is one big ball that keeps rollin’ down the hill. I get chatty about it. And you know me, peeps. I like to ruminate so much that I’m not thoroughly fulfilled until I have beat an idea to its bloody death.

So I’m taking this gratitude thing to the blog.

That means that I have made a challenge to myself — as well as a public declaration to you — that I will blog every farking day for the month of November.

And you what? I LOVE writing this blog but sometimes the old girl gets swept aside in my rush to, you know, keep my children clean, alive and fed and procure dollars.

Life. What are you gonna do?

Hat-tip to the ‘tude person

So today I’m thankful for whomever started the 30 Days of Gratitude. I’m thankful to have a lazer-focused reason to blog every day — but one that’s still squishy enough that I can write about whatever the heck I want.

I’m thankful to have a challenge to write here every single day — and also to publish it. Peeps, I can’t tell you how many blog posts are sitting in the queue nearly done but still languishing in the dark because I never got around to finishing them. There’s something to be said for not fondling the blog posts too long and just getting them out there in the world.

I’m thankful for a place to write and for people to read my words. I’m thankful that you keep coming back here — for almost three years now — to share this time with me.

I’m thankful that I’m enough of a rule-breaker that I can say a big oh-fuckin’-well to not having started on November 1.

Knowing that, I’m thankful that I have so many things to be thankful for that by the end of the month, I’ll have covered far more than 30 items anyway.