Wow. (Oh, wait, that’s how I started off Day 3’s post. I should start this one completely differently. Ha! Take that, all you sufferers of adverb aversion! I’ll start over.)

Whoa! (Heh.) It’s been a dark and stormy day (and now night) here at the lake. I’m just hoping the only road in here doesn’t flood again. Really a drag when that happens. But it would keep me at home and help me stay at the desk writing. If the basement doesn’t flood, which would keep me downstairs with a mop and a bucket and I don’t even wanna think about that right now. (She says as the sky opens and the rain begins to pour. And she wonders if she maybe shouldn’t have brought all the plants on the deck inside for the night. Good thing the deck is covered!) Once upon a time I had no house and not so many reasons to grouse. ;)

But I’ve digressed long enough. Let me tell you what happened this evening when I went to Mass. I got there early enough to pray the Divine Office before the Blessed Sacrament. As I knelt before entering the pew, I noticed two people sitting in one of the front pews, talking not loudly but certainly not exactly quietly either. And, really, one isn’t supposed to be talking in there at all. But in most parishes I’ve been in for lo these many years, few people seem to understand that. So as I knelt I asked the Lord if maybe they couldn’t be inspired to maybe end their conversation or go into another room. And they did! I got into the pew and knelt to prepare for Mass and I heard the gentleman say to the lady, “Let’s go in that other room, people are trying to pray.” As they disappeared through the door I whispered to the Lord, “Thank you, Jesus!” :)

Later the priest came in. Our long-time priest passed away a while back and we have yet to receive another, so we’ve had lots of different priests helping out. When this one came in, the Lord showed me once again His inimitable sense of humor. The priest got there with barely any time to spare and had to work out where and how everything worked and the one helping him was the lady who had been talking in the pew before, and now she was talking and laughing in the sanctuary and MUCH LOUDER, too.

Oy.

I buried my head and my attention in my prayer book as much as I was able. And the Lord gave me a gift. I read the wrong readings for Evening Prayer (did Evening Prayer I instead of II for Sunday) but it worked out alright because I read some things in those readings that inspired scenes for the novel. See how good the Lord is? Even when I’m an idiot, He pours out graces. I had forgotten my phone (I said I was an idiot, right?) so I had to dig in my purse for a pen and an old receipt so I could scribble down the inspirations before they got away.

Later when I got home I fed the dogs and fixed dinner and ate while watching EWTN. The show on Chesterton was about some of the things I’ve been writing about in the novel. So I got more ideas then. God is so good! I’ve been trying to write this story (well, trying to figure out what the story is and how to write it) since 2012. But now I seem to be finally getting somewhere. And that’s a wonderful feeling.

Word count goal for the month: 50K. Nightly: 1,667. Tonight: Less than 4K. Total: Over 20K. Awright! Woohoo!

My Camp NaNoWriMo stat page said at this rate I’ll finish by mid-month. Of course, I won’t. Even if I reach 50K by then, I won’t be finished. This story is a mess and I have loads of work to do on it. But I’m thrilled with the way it’s going and that’s enough for now.

Thanks for stopping by and may the peace of Christ be with you always. God bless you!