NaNO#21 Shoes and seeds and gifts

First-- you have to see this piece of art-- this is crop art! My fabulous (and talented) editor at Midnight Ink, created this out of seeds. Art out of seeds! Can you believe it? And it's a shoe! So, well, you know... How could I resist? It is national be thankful for shoes and harvests and everything else day, right?
Ok. It's NaNo so how to make this about writing? Oh, yeah...Speaking of thankful-
Yesterday I took part in a discussion centered on this question: Would you write if you didn't have to? Would you be happier if you stopped?
We all know Writing is Hard.
But writing is a gift. Sometimes I know that I forget that. I forget to be grateful and take joy in the process and the wonderful comeraderie with other writers and the magic that is creating a story out of nothing.
And what a gift we writers have--to navigate the funhouses and labyrinths of the human experience, to go to the dark place and bring back the treasure, to transport our passengers to the center of the sun or a rice paddy in Viet Nam or someone else's holiday table. To channel magic that reaches across lifetimes and cultures and languages and everything else, to send a little smoke signal to another human that makes them say, Yes! that's what it's like to be human!
Yes, that is truly a gift.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.