We’re in the last 10 days of the 30 day writing challenge I’ve been in with my friends, Wes, Darlene & Anna, and it’s been a great 3 weeks of blogging.  I was coming off of a very full semester during which I didn’t get the chance to do a lot of writing or reflection so this challenge seemed to be the perfect way to kickstart my writing practice.

That’s actually been a theme in our small writing challenge community, using this challenge as a way to kickstart thinking/ reflective/ writing practices that are important to each of us but for which we haven’t been finding (or making) the time.

The last few days, I’ve realized how particularly important the public aspect of this 30 day challenge has been for me, and the importance of blogging as public thinking has been.  I’ve been really encouraged by members of my online communities, through responses directly to the blog or on Facebook, and it’s made me realize that blogging is a way for me to engage in intentional dialogue.

This has come up for me in the last couple of days because I’ve been doing other writing (conference proposals, revisions of academic writing, reviews) and wondering if that “counts” for the writing challenge — the thought of what counts is hilarious because, I mean, we made up the rules, and as I’ve told Anna, it’s a low-stress, low-stakes challenge.  But, what that question has helped me to do is think about “what counts” in my own life (writing and otherwise).

For the sake of this writing challenge, I decided to continue blogging each day, and publicly share at least 150 words, even if I am engaging in writing for other purposes.  For me, the greatest power of this challenge has been establishing greater community and I want to honor that spirit through my posts.

But, in the rest of my life, I’ve realized that “what counts” for me is moving towards greater integrity.  This morning, I went for a 9-mile workout.  When I got back to my friend Yafa’s apartment, I was at 8.97 miles.  Did that 0.03 miles matter? Not really.  But, did it matter to me? It did. And I walked in the hallways until I hit 9.00.

This post is not to say anything about what might or should count for others. Rather, it is to declare these realizations as gifts. A gift of this challenge, of this stage of my life more generally, has been the freedom to define and honor what matters to me, separate from what fulfills the rules/ obligations/ expectations that I feel pushing down upon me. And that certainly counts.

Thanks for being with me on this journey.