65 in 2016

I'm thinking about numbers a lot this week.

And control.

And how I need to pull back my emotional focus (being happy, being frustrated, being proud, being disappointed, being motivated, etc...) to the things I can control.

And maybe invest less of my ego into what numbers mean...

But it's hard work. Numbers surround us, and we're all so eager to quantify things we can forget about the quality of things.

Numbers on my mind...

0 - the number of 'agent looking for diversity' interviews happening this month. Disappointing, but ultimately not something I could control. (Interviews, like dancing the tango, take two.)

2 - ninth grade classes I'm speaking to tomorrow (about being a gay dad, about the difference between gender identity and affective orientation, about what all the initials in the LGBTQAI+ acronym mean, about how we can all stand up as Allies for everyone else, and hopefully they'll stand up for us -- and transform the world.)

23 - agent and editor "looking for diversity interviews" that did happen over the last few years.

50 - my age on Wednesday. (Birthdays with zeroes at the end get so much hype...)

65 - LGBTQ themed or significant LGBTQ character books for kids and teens on the American Library Association's Rainbow List nomination list for 2016. Sixty-five books in one year. Wow! (When I started this blog in 2007, there weren't 65 books total!)

1,979,465 - the number of page views to this blog since that first post on September 15, 2007. I'm proud of that reach, but that's not a number I control. Maybe I should be prouder of this being the 2,130th post on this blog.

Advice to myself:

Be the lighthouse, and don't value my light by how many boats it saves. Know the light has value if it saves one boat. Know the light has value because it's light. 

one more number on my mind:

1 - grateful me.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee