Good morning. I hope everyone is safe, warm, and healthy this Christmas. I moved to Ohio last year after living mostly in Austin, Texas and a few years in Portland, Oregon. I woke up to my first white Christmas in forever. I think I’ve only had one or two in my life. I seem to gravitate to warm states like Florida, Arizona and Texas. I will admit, the heat in Texas was getting old. I’m really enjoying living in a place with four seasons. I’m sitting on my couch with a hot cup of coffee looking out the window at my backyard. It’s like a postcard.
I finished the sequel to Streaming Sarah this week. Finishing Streaming James was my Christmas present to myself. My writing group meets again in January, and they will edit the last few chapters I wrote this week. I’m not sure how many writers joined groups while working on their craft, but I highly recommended it. Having so many different perceptions really opened my eyes to how readers might see the chapters. I learned so much from reading and editing their chapters as well. We continued our meetings by zoom this year. It made 2020 bearable.
If you haven’t done so already, I recommend setting up calls via zoom, Skype, FaceTime, portal, what ever means you have. I can promise you within minutes, you will forget you are not in the room. I have face-to-face Fridays. I’ll either play Yahtzee with friends or just sit around and chat. For Yahtzee, we each have our own dice and aim the camera at the table so everyone can see the dice. If I’m not playing Yahtzee, I’ll have a glass of wine with a friend. I do Tai Chi three times a week with a friend from Oregon. She has her DVD going to sound and I’ll have mine on without the sound. I aim my camera at me so she can see me. She does the same.
Community is critical for mental heath. We are doing zoom for Christmas this year. Not ideal, but we are all trying to keep each other safe. I look forward to reading everyone’s blogs today and in 2021. I’ve been away from WordPress for most of 2020. Not because of Covid, but because I was focused on finishing my masters, which I did in November of this year.
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very healthy and happy New Year.
Joyce
Joyce Kostakis feeling inspired and brave enough to write. 