100 Days and Counting

Blink and the Year's Gone By

Hello, friends!

This is something of a drive-by post. Inspiration hit, and as I’m awake in the wee hours, anticipating the arrival of the movers bringing my furniture out of storage, you get the benefit of my insomnia.

I have a very non-scientific theory that the earth spins faster during the last third of the calendar year. We hit September and that’s it, might as well be making your New Year’s resolutions because the distance from Labor Day to New Year’s Eve keeps getting shorter. Including today, September 23^rd, there are 100 days remaining in 2025. Apologies to those of you in time zones 15+ hours ahead of me—you’re already down a day.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Sometimes these little reminders of how fast time flies make me feel anxious. I start examining accomplishments and to-do lists and feeling hopelessly behind, as if there were a set number of tasks demanded of us per lifetime. As if I’ll even know, once I’m gone, what I left undone.

But other days, I love these mile markers, because they inspire me. 100 days left to the year? What can I fit into that time? How many checkboxes can I tick off by January 1^st? Let’s get to it!

This year I’ve decided to set myself a loose 100-day challenge. I thought about all of the things I could do daily for the next 100 days. I wanted something easy and not particularly time consuming, but that would accumulate and give me that sense of accomplishment at the end of the year. A small win, but a lovely burst of pride in myself. I actually came up with two that I like, and as they are small, and one is “input” and the other “output,” I think I might do both.

Each day through the end of the year, I will read one poem. It can be an old favorite or something new to me, short or long. I’m hoping to dip into a few poets I haven’t read before, and maybe discover some I’ve yet to hear of. However it pans out, I’ll have lovely new words filling my head and maybe a little inspiration.

My second challenge is to take a photograph every day. Now, I realize there are people who do this by rote since we all started carrying camera phones, but I am not the sort to keep a visual chronicle of my life. I like this challenge because it does just that—it challenges me to get out in the world and find something I’d like to photograph, or to be creative in my surroundings to capture an interesting shadow or angle or a new take on an object. I’m also constantly pushing myself to do things that are not word related. When reading and writing are both your livelihood and your hobbies, you find yourself buried under an avalanche of words by the end of the week. I want to mix that up a little, commit to activities that don’t revolve around the written word. Taking photos fits perfectly.

How are you going to spend this last gasp of 2025? Do you have a project to finish? Or are you considering something new? I love to hear how people schedule their time, and make use of these sorts of blocks that feel neatly delineated. Or maybe you ignore the calendar whenever possible and just do your own thing. I applaud that option as well. Probably the healthiest of all, but I’ve never managed to pull it off.

Have you ever set yourself a 100-day challenge? I’d be interested to hear about your experience if you have. Please share in the comments!

I’m off to deal with movers now. Wishing you a great day! I’ll be back in a few with a more standard post. Until then!🥰