Sometimes you find encouragement when and where you least expect it.

Around noon, the sun finally peeked out and brightened the plaza outside my office building. It didn’t last long, but it was nice to see nonetheless.

An encouraging lift in the day.

This afternoon I decided a smiling face would be nice to see. So for my afternoon break, I headed to the nearby B&N Café. The friendly barista confirmed my usual, peppermint tea, and proceeded to fetch the refill. Then she noticed the writing on my cup.

I gave a quick description of NaNoWriMo, and she wrote down the URL.

“Cool! I love to write. I used to write all the time. I think I might give NaNoWriMo a try. Thanks!”

(By then a line had formed, or I would have mentioned she might like to try blogging. I’ll save that for the next time I see her.)

An encouraging lift in the day.

This evening I took a quick glance at Facebook, to see if friends and family had anything of interest. (Farmville and other game updates are not interesting, BTW.)

One of my biking friends mentioned he signed up for the Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride.

This afternoon, I was leaning toward skipping the ride, just three weeks away. Thanks to his post, I am leaning back toward going for it again.

An encouraging lift in the day.