Confession Tuesday

Hello folks! It’s time to fess up. Share a bit of yourself with us, and don’t forget to visit your fellow confessors in The Confessional.

Yep, I’m 40.

The buildup to 40 was great. Then I went to the gym and had to put my age into the elliptical’s settings. *Reality sets in.* I know age is just a number, but it feels like jumping into cold water.

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After seeing the TED presentation of Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book Eat, Pray, Love, I bought the book. I rarely buy best sellers—why would I want to read a book that almost everyone else has read? What’s the point? Despite my flawed logic, I was drawn into Gilbert’s story and her personal philosophy on writing. I found myself wanting to tap into her energy. So I again encourage you to check out her presentation about the notion of genius and creativity.

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Finally, I’m working on a poem that’s worth finishing! In fact, I have two poems in the works. When I’m writing on a new piece, I push off all other creative tasks to finish it, including blogging, submissions, revisions, etc. Needless to say, I’m behind on just about everything else (hence, this post is shorter than normal).

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I managed to send out two submissions with a third in the works. Doesn’t feel like I’ve been productive this month but all evidence points to the contrary.

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Will post birthday photos here and on Facebook tonight.

Comments

Deb said…
Love the short confession due to work in progress. Great!! I'll have to check the TED talks, which are always amazing. I am not sure I can read the book, though. For similar reasons you have.

The water gets warmer. :-)

Here's mine: http://stoneymoss.org/2009/02/17/confessions-more-on-the-theme/
J--

I had a similar thing as my scale tells me my age and height before I get on it (really, do I need to know I'm 5'7" every morning?) Anyway, I haven't changed it since we bought the scale, so whenever I get on, it tells me I'm 37. I decided to change it and somehow jumping 3 years felt bigger than I thought it would.

Though now being 40, more people keep saying "well you don't look 40!" than ever. Apparently we're in the decade where you can look very good or very terrible, depending. I don't necessarily feel more confident at 40, but I do feel a substantial amount of my life has passed I can already tell I'm less likely to take any bull$*#%.

Oh and I also checked out Eat,Pray Love again from the library. I had read it (I think you'll like it, she's a good writer- don't let the "bestseller" thang influence you--I do that too). So thanks again for the TED link, I thought she was a remarkable speaker.
susan said…
You are productive, successful and happy. And I'm happy for you. We have Gilbert's book. I would have glad loaned it to you. Then you could have bought a poetry book. :-)
susan said…
After installing the blogroll/follower option, I've discovered it is really useful. Do check out your updates through your dashboard and you should have them on your front page. Did I overlook them? Cuts down on randomly checking for updates.
January said…
Susan, I now check updates on my dashboard. I don't like checking comments on my homepage--just a personal preference.

Trust me, I have more poetry books than I can handle. In fact, I just bought two more. If I could signle handedly keep the recession at bay for poetry by buying books, I would.
January said…
Kelli, sage advice. I happy to be on this side of 40. Don't think I'd go back, and like you, I'm less likely to take any BS.

Thanks for the kind words.
January said…
Deb, you'll enjoy Gilber's TED Talk. It's truly inspiring.
Odessa said…
january, i love E.G.'s inspiring talk! thanks for posting it. like you, i haven't read Eat, Pray, Love because everyone read it already - i'm such a snob, haha. but a friend loaned it to me and i will start reading it tonight.

Congrats again for turning 40 and feeling so good about it! I'm kinda scared of my coming bday (turning 30, that is).

Here's mine: confession tuesday
Catherine said…
So, what poetry books do you recommend? My daughter is travelling to the US in April and has offered to bring books back, despite the poor exchange rate, the savings on international shipping means I can get books for half the usual price here by having Amazon send them to her friend in the US
(Would you still have as many poetry books if you had to pay twice as much, and were earning about half as much?)
January said…
Catherine, I'm posting a list tomorrow of the 20 poetry books that I love (it's a meme that's making it's way on Facebook). Take a look and let me know if any of the titles spark your interest.

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