eimarra | Stretching the mind (Reply)

Today, I’m grateful for work that I enjoy, that uses my abilities, and that stretches my brain. (It also fills my wallet, which I’m also very grateful for.) Yes, these describe my writing, but I’m applying them today to my freelance business. Lately (as I mentioned before), I’ve been working on an index to a book about Heidegger — which turned out to be a trilingual index (not counting the couple Latin entries that wandered in) that dealt with lots of heavy concepts (such as the Being of beings), words that Heidegger invented (Reluzenz), and discussion of everything from limits, politics, and death to the difference between transitive and intransitive uses of the verb “to live.”

I also have two proofreading jobs going on right now — one on software that I know and love, and the other a travel book. These aren’t as difficult, but they pull on different parts of my brain — different language knowledge, different facts, different organization.

Together, all of these things keep my brain sharp and help me to think in new ways — which, with luck, I can translate to my fiction. Even if not, I enjoy the work for itself. What more could I ask for?

What are you grateful for today?