This Time of Year

One of the things that I absolutely love about this time of year (among many other things), is the ease of inspiration in whatever is about me.  So much is happening around the last few months of the year that it revs up my imagination, my drive, my motivation, and my excitement.  Unfortunately, so much else is going on that I know we all run into those snags that slow down our ability to actually find the time to utilize it in a creative process.  But there is definitely no lack of creativity for me.

Most who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Christmas time.  Yet, it's not just this time that begins to whet my appetite.  It starts in October, as the leaves change and it becomes cold.  Halloween is creeping up on you and suddenly, there is so much to see and so many memories to make and enjoy.  Then November hits, and Thanksgiving springs up before you're really prepared, shoveling even more memorable moments into your head.  Then, it's suddenly December.

The best part of December is that it's not just a month for some people to enjoy.  Almost everyone I know has something to look forward to besides a few days off of work or school.  If your Jewish, you get to celebrate Hannukah, which sounds so magical to me (even though I know it's not their main holiday of the year, they still seem to have a lot of fun celebrating it).  Then there's Kwanzaa, which unfortunately I know little about though still sounds pretty intriguing.  And of course, there is Christmas.  All of these holidays happening relatively close to each other make the entire month so much brighter and more exciting to me. 

And even if you celebrated none of those holidays, you still have New Year's to round out the year, and that alone makes us think both back over the year and ahead into the next, which always makes me think of different key events and moments in my life that definitely come to inspire my creative juices when I write.

Perhaps that's why it's fate that November is the National Journal and Novel Writing Month.  It's always part of the best time of year for me to put pen to my paper and watch it sing; or at least warble humbly into something useful. 

The holidays alone don't just edify that desire to write: the falling leaves, the first fall of snow, and the simple natural changes that occur sweeten my palate and make me beg for more.  It's always been a magical time for me, and as I get older, it only becomes bolder in its ways. 

Any change, I find, can do this.  Allowing it to do so, is always a different story.  But should you allow it, I would bet it to be one worth sharing.  And even if you have little time to actually write it all out, make sure you jot thoughts and memories and ideas down somewhere, anywhere, so when you do have that time to give yourself over to writing, you have that moment at your fingertips to recall and relive.  And suddenly, you will find yourself back in that time of the year.  That magical time, whenever it may be for you, and it will still sing just as soundly for your mind.