A To Z - And They're Off!

All over the blogosphere, people are beginning the A To Z challenge.  Since I'm also one of those participants, I figured I better get my post up.  Which brings me to the first letter, A.

And what does this post have to do with the letter A?  The word Almost.

For starters, I almost forgot to get things started.  Today has been such an awesome day, with me spending all kinds of time with the family.  Because of my distraction and fun however, I almost forgot to post something.  I almost forgot to do my homework.  I almost forgot to get some writing done.

The word almost is such a funny thing.  It can mean either promise or pain, success or failure.  Let me illustrate what I mean.  If I say I almost sat down and did some writing today, I'm fairly certain most of my fellow writers would call that a failure.  The pain it causes me to think about that use of the word comes from NOT getting writing done.

If we look at things another way however, almost can hold some great promise.  For example, if I say I almost finished all my edits today, everyone knows that I worked hard and that I was striving towards completion.  The very act of trying to succeed in this case overrides the fact that I didn't actually make it.  It's like an amateur runner finishing in second place on a 10K, when it's his first attempt.  Although he doesn't finish first, so many others finish behind him.  He almost wins, and yet there is still cause for celebration.

Maybe I'm stretching things a bit, but I like the possibilities that almost can present.  It gives us an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back, even though we may not have completely accomplished all our goals.  And sometimes that's exactly what we need; a little encouragement and self confidence so that our next attempt results in a big YES!

Before I go, I'd just like to say congrats to everyone who has joined this A to Z challenge and managed a post today.  And for all you visitors, while I doubt we expect that you'll visit everyone's blog (since there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 600+ blogs participating), please stop by as many as you can.  This is a really fun challenge and we all want to hear from you during this month.

Lastly, what goal did you almost succeed at?  And did you pat yourself on the back for the attempt?  Take care all, and see you tomorrow.