November in New Jersey is an unattractive month. For us in the Northeast, it’s that gray, dark, cold month that ushers in winter. I do a lot of things in November–I try to get ready for holidays by cleaning a bit, I worry where we’ll get the money for Christmas gifts, I put the garden to bed. It can be a busy month, and there’s the Thanks Feast at the end, too.
Another thing that happens in November is the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Three years ago I participated , and the result is the novel I’m currently working through. For those of you who don’t know, let me quote from Wikipedia: “National Novel Writing Month, is an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. Participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript between November 1 and November 30. Well-known authors write “pep-talks” to keep them motivated throughout the process.” There’s a whole community of folks at nanowrimo.org to help and support you in this crazy, beautiful mess of creativity.
Since I’m 3rd-draft deep in The Rejoicing Hen, I didn’t NaNoWriMo in 2019. But I do want to do something in my life to recapture that crazy, I-must-write-every-day-to-win-this, feeling. So, one thing I can do is write short Christian devotionals. I plan to write and post one per day, every day, for the church season of Lent. Each one will have a Bible reading, a short message, a prayer, and a way to apply it to daily life. Call it: Read, Think, Pray, Do.
I’m going to post an intro a week or so before Ash Wednesday, say around February 19th, then the whole crazy post-a-day thing starts on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which this year happens on February 26, 2020.
The overall theme is going to be seeing God through a new lens, the lens of the natural world. So, come with me on a forty-day-long journey as day by day we take A Walk Through Creation.
The View from Mt. Hope 