A Year Without Television: A New Year's Resolution Fulfilled!

I fulfilled a New Year's resolution in 2014 that I am considering for 2018. In 2014, I vowed to spend twelve months without television. Betting and joking immediately ensued among family and friends on how long I'd last. I was addicted to crime sitcoms ["Castle," "Major Crimes," "CSI," "Elementary," "NCIS," "Law & Order SVU"] and fantasy ["Once Upon a Time," "Warehouse 13," "The Librarians"] and political thrillers ["Person of Interest," "House of Cards," "Covert Affairs"], well, you get the idea.

These twelve shows were not the only shows I watched. Add news. With a degree in journalism, being a news junkie is a given. Add movies. Add the occasional documentary and talent competition. I've watched absolute garbage after channel surfing because nothing else was on. Addiction and inertia held me captive.

"My wakeup call was reading a statistic from the Parents Television Council that children in America watch between four and eight hours of television a day." 

They spend more time staring at a blinking box than in school! No wonder America has an epidemic of overweight, undereducated children and teens. And what are they learning? Bad behavior from reality television shows and talk shows? Egad. Four to eight hours a day is enough time to master a second language or learn new hobbies and skills. Righteous indignation rose in me about this monumental waste of our most precious asset--time. I asked my daughter how much time my darling grandchildren spent in front of the television per day.

And then she asked me how much time I spent.

blink. blink. blink.

So 2015 was a test. A cure for my addiction. I wish I could tell you it was easy, that my iron willpower helped me stroll by the big-screen in the living room without temptation. I wish I could say with a straight face that hearing others talk about the shocking season finale of any of my favorite shows didn't knock the wind out of me. When book club pals asked if I was going to watch the new shows "Sherlock," "Bosch," or "Outlander" my resolve quavered dangerously on the edge of quitting this mad personal quest.

Spending a year without television allowed me to read 35 more books in 2015 than in the previous year. I traveled to: Charleston (SC), Jacksonville with my girl pals, San Juan, St. Kitts, St. Barts, Las Vegas, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, New York City, Naples (FL), and multiple trips to North Carolina.







In April, I worked as a stringer/reporter for General Aviation News at the SUN 'N FUN Fly-In. You can read my articles by clicking on GA News. It was a joy to combine my journalism training with my aviation hobby and get paid for it! What rewarding joy!



Handsome and I also learned gun safety and enjoyed target practice under the watchful eye of a friend from church who had served in the Marines. Getting off the sofa has been rewarding after all.
Perhaps many of you will also opt out of television viewing for a year.

Imagine all those mean political ads you'll miss...and the books you will have time to read. Ahem. My third book will be coming out in late spring. So expect to hear more about the book in the coming months. And, yes, it will be available in print for those readers who refuse to read on a tablet, like my mother and mother-in-law.



So let the bets be covered. I survived a year without television! Woot Woot. Okay, so I didn't learn another language or discover a cure for cancer, but I wrote more, played more, and spent more hours each day toward my lifelong goal of publishing novels.

Remember time is your most precious asset. Tell me, what would you do with four extra hours a day?

Finding Your Bliss

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you
where there were only walls.” ~ Joseph Campbell

I’ve been trying to finish a light amateur sleuth mystery (yay! Finally a series to write!) but another story keeps nagging at me. It’s one I’ve picked up and put down about a dozen times; changed the focus; the motivation; everything except the central characters and the theme.

I’m not sure why that book keeps pulling me back. Maybe it comes from the idea that each one of us has something special to contribute—maybe work we feel compelled to do. By doing it, we feel fulfilled and enrich the world. Joseph Campbell talks about finding your own path (“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”). How do you find that path? Some refer to it as following your bliss. Others say, find your heart’s passion.

But is that passion the broader goal or a kernel that embodies it?

For many of us on this blog, our passion is writing. Taking intuitions, snippets, dreams and moments of pure fantasy imagination. Adding overheard conversations, glimpses of a vignette as we pass by. Grabbing that nebulous possibility, and shaping and turning into a polished story.

Is writing the passion we want to share with the world? Or is it a particular theme or story that we feel we have to tell to reach that bliss?

I really have no idea, so I keep putting one foot in front of the other and step by step find my path.

Right now, that path is strolling along with a snarky divorcee who's temporarily living on a tree farm... You might hear a bit more about her later.

But as much fun as the amateur sleuth is to write, that other story is still there, a siren song.

Even if we take the steps to become an author, maybe we chose a certain path because we fear the stories we want to write won’t sell. We love chic lit or romantic mysteries or literary stories where the characters rule and the words flow to a different rhythm, but we read online, hear from editors, agents, creative writing texts that D, all the above are passé. We’re tempted to follow trends rather than listen to the story inside us. I think most of us have cleared that hurdle, but the doubt is always there--should I have chosen a different path?

Overall, I'm happy with my path to "here." Sure, there have been highs and lows, joys and regrets. I'm happy our paths crossed, here on the blog, at Carina, conferences or any of the other places we've connected. I hope my passion for writing lives on and that I can share my joy and make a small corner of the worlds a better place.

And in the meanwhile, I think my other story is still growing—or growing up—quietly evolving in my subconscious. I have many books still to write.

But I suspect “that story” will one day be the one I have to tell.

What about you?

“As you go the way of life,

You will see a great chasm. Jump.

It is not as wide as you think.”

Joseph Campbell