Losing Sleep

I've had trouble sleeping for nearly half my life. At first it was a major annoyance and I'd flat out lying if I said that I don't feel the same way some nights still, but I have gotten used to it. I've learned how to see the signs that I'm about to experience one of these nights, and therefore I don't waste them laying in bed hopelessly counting sheep or some other lame way to unsuccessfully bore myself to sleep. These days I spend that time doing something to help myself.

I mentioned that I'm writing a novel. Tonight, being one of those sleepless nights, I've been able to spend sometime thinking about the things I need to write this week; the hoops I need to make these characters, whose lives become more and more real to me everyday, jump through, and which of them are going to emerge on the other side with grace and who's going to fall.

It's nearly 6AM in Phoenix, I've already watched a few of my friends on the East Coast wake up and go about their morning routines via Facebook. It's an odd feeling to know that these people, some of who are the dearest of friends I have, are waking up when I'm not even thinking about falling asleep and when it comes down to it, we're not that far apart; driving I could get there today and a flight would three maybe four hours. What a small world we live in. It gets smaller everyday and everyday each person is connected more and more to every other person in the world. When ever you think that what happens somewhere else, to someone else, doesn't matter to you or make a difference in your life, remember that you're part of this world, and each time one life is lost prematurely, we all loose identity. It's only through the cooperation of every species, every race, every human being that we can make this world what it should be. Too often are we consumed by petty differences and let them stop us from seeing the good in the world and in each other.

The novel that is currently consuming my life is about love, it's about learning about ourselves, learning from our mistakes, and helping one another be the best people we can. It's not a lesson that any of us are ever done learning but it is one that we often pretend to know whether we practice it or not. Nothing about any of us, or anything in this world for that matter, is perfect, but that doesn't give anyone an adequate excuse not to try to improve where we need to.

Wednesday Update

It's been awhile since I wrote anything on here. Honestly, I don't have a lot to write about that I really haven't already, so I've decided to just let you all know what I've been doing lately.

I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. My brother Dustin and his wife Kristin live here, so I've been staying with them. It's been great to be with family again. I also have a little more family here, but I haven't had the chance to go see them as of yet, but I'll get there.

I've been filling my days with a lot of reflection. Not only reflection on the last seven months of my life and the things that have occurred in that time, but a lot about the last five years of my life, and the experiences I've had, and the people I've met. I've been taking all of those things in and have started working on a project I've thought about for sometime.

What's the project? Well, until recently I didn't really know myself, but I've come to realize that it's a book. Not a book about homelessness or the things I experienced while on the road, but a coming of age story mostly about twenty somethings and the relationships that we have in that time that teach us about ourselves and shape us to be mature enough to have the kind of relationships that last. It's not a typical love story, but romance is a pretty big theme through out, and really, if not for romantic relationships, there wouldn't be a story.

So I've kind of been shutting myself off from the outside world to work on this book. When I started, I planned on writing a novella (around 150 pages), but the story has progressed more as I've started writing and it seems like it's going to turn into a novel.

Besides sitting inside and writing all day long, I've been continually taking at least a minute of my time each day for some photography. In June 2010 I started a photography project to help strengthen my portfolio. I've been making sure to take at least one picture everyday. But no matter how many I take, one is selected as the picture of the day. Those are available for your viewing pleasure on the Sean Donner Photography Facebook page. Enjoy.

I'll keep writing here with updates on my life until I'm back in a home of my own again so keep checking back!

I love you all,

Sean