Today’s #reverb10 prompt:

December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta)

Like some other people, I struggled with this prompt at first. I thought that it was a little strange but I understood it’s place in this event–we warmed up yesterday & set the tone, today we focus on how to complete this journey of writing every day. I wasn’t certain how the prompt applied to me, though.

Halfway through my day, it dawned on me. It’s not so much an activity that is a barrier for me but an emotion. I’m anxious that my writing won’t be good enough. I’m anxious that I will be honest enough–and that I’ll reveal too much. Perhaps the most repeated piece of writing advice is to “write what you know.” Before last month, I hadn’t written any fiction unless it was an assignment and that was incredibly limited. I started off participating in #NaNoWriMo. If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that I didn’t get very far in word count. But, I had a huge breakthrough. I learned how to use my life to inspire my work–not regurgitate it. I think even in this format, it can be a useful mode of writing. I don’t think I’ll eliminate my anxiety any time soon, but I learned to write through it.

I’m participating in #reverb10 throughout the month of December. Please take a moment to check it out and think about participating. One of my very favorite lovelies is behind it, Ms. Caligater aka Cali :) Here we go with the very first writing prompt!

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)

2010: Commitment
If you know me very well at all, you know that I dream big. I think big, I plan big, and I just plain dream big. At various points in the last five years I’ve considered going to med or law school, start my own company, opening a science & tech art gallery, or becoming a full time artist. Let’s gloss over the fact that I haven’t made a single piece of art in the last five years, shall we? On a smaller scale, I’ve planned to start running, write a cookbook, knit a king sized blanket after I finish Rich’s scarf, take up pottery again, and post at least weekly on this blog. My poor blog is happy to get one post a month. I have at least identified a pottery studio and looked up classes (nothing compatible with my schedule right now). After about a year, I’m almost to the halfway point on that scarf. I do have over 100 pages of that cookbook written and some photos set aside. Running? Yeah, I can’t claim to have done anything but think about the cute shoes I could buy. Let’s just say I have a problem with committing to an idea and executing. I do a great job at this at work, but I just can’t seem to get it down after hours. With one huge exception. I decided that I wanted to move to Boulder. I didn’t just want to move to Boulder. I wanted to already have a job–a very good job–lined up and waiting for me. I was ridiculed and just flat out laughed at for trying this in the current economic state. Also? My friends and family were used to hearing my plans and not seeing them go anywhere. But…I committed, and it feels oh so good!

I committed to a few other things this year, too. I’m a volunteer on a regular, committed basis–the first time since high school. I am taking over operations for SnapImpact. I’m getting there, and I am committed. Most of all, I committed to being utterly and completely myself. I wasn’t pretending to be someone else or acting a certain way to gain anyone’s approval before. I just wasn’t completely, openly, honestly me. I held back. I bit my tongue (sometimes). Now, I am just me, and it’s refreshing and rewarding. Much love to all of my friends that like me just the way I am :)

Oh and the most important thing about me and commitment? When I decide, it’s done. Mr. Welch has nothing to worry about :)

2011: Balance
When we first moved to Boulder, I planned to participate in a very, very long list of activities and events. Not long ago, I had scheduled 10 straight days with at least one event per day. Thankfully, I scaled back, but I had to break some dates and rearrange some things. I hope that at the end of 2011, I will look back and see that I have found balance–not just throwing things overboard when I’m sinking.

Note: Rich & I went to high school with Doug.

UPDATE 11/6: ALL CLEAR!!!  Doug is now in contact and is safe.  He was just out of communication for a bit.  Thanks for all the looks, retweets, email sharing, etc.  On this very low traffic blog, this post reached nearly 1500 page views in less than a week.  It was interesting to watch as the traffic moved from areas where Doug’s high school classmates lived, to Denver, and then specifically to Aurora where Doug goes to school & lives.  Thanks again–so much!

UPDATE 11/4:

Doug is probably physically okay, but we still haven’t been able to get a visual sighting.

Doug’s apartment lease expired around the time he defended his dissertation. Since his lease expired, he has slept in campus student centers and hotels. He was revising his dissertation during this period.
The last contact anyone made with him was October 19th. His mom contacted Chris and filed a missing persons report on Saturday (10/30).

We know Doug’s campus ID was used last Friday (10/29) and throughout last week. The campus police said they will dispatch an officer the next time his ID is used; it’s flagged in their computers. Presumably, they will verify that Doug is using his card and tell him that he has been reported missing.
His shared bank account had activity last week: withdrawals AND deposits. It seems unlikely that a thief or kidnapper would make deposits into Doug’s account, so we are hoping that Doug has just walled himself away. I don’t think Doug was involved in anything that would attract nefarious attention from the CIA or a similarly cunning civilian kidnapper.

Original Post:

Doug Donham was reported missing yesterday by his parents and was last heard from on October 17th in Denver.

His apartment lease ended last month around the time he was defending his dissertation at the University of Colorado Denver. Subsequently, he was living nomadically while revising his paper: sleeping on a couch in the student union and sometimes getting a hotel room. As of the 17th his phone has been turned off and his parents, friends and advisor have not heard from him since then.

If you have any information on his whereabouts since then, please contact Chris Schilling (chris.schilling@gmail.com) who is coordinating with Doug’s parents.