Today’s view of the irises in my front yard

Just for the record, in my last post, which I realize was…um…er…uh…a while ago, I specifically did not technically resolve to post on my blog more often. I merely said I might.

Since then, ongoing shoulder pain only got worse while I was awaiting surgery, I had the surgery, I’ve been rehabbing, I will be for a while longer, and am still awaiting the day when typing is not a painful activity, as it has been for over a year. (Not such a great thing for a writer.)

But here I am to drop in on my own blog to say I’m still here and I’m still kicking (just not swinging my arms).

Normally I go to fitness classes several times a week. When I had a four-month wait for surgery, I decided to keep going and just drop out of the shoulder activities on one arm. Post-surgery is a different story. No matter how many medical professionals I ask, I get the same answer. No. You can’t go back yet. Those classes are too much jumping around and shoulders absorb too much even if you think you’re not using your arm.

So less physical activity than usual. Less typing than usual. What does that leave me? Even holding a book is not always the most comfortable thing to do.

Thank goodness baseball season started and I can watch my Cubbies.

Heat packs and ice packs and Netflix and Amazon Prime in between twice-daily rounds of physical therapy exercises at home and pointless attempts to sleep (that’s getting better).

And my own thoughts.

Sometimes my thoughts poke fun at my aging self, like my adult kids telling me how to drive (who do they think taught them to drive?). Sometimes they are deep thoughts, and I surprise myself at an insight I didn’t see coming about family dynamics. Sometimes it’s how I’m not a very patient patient even though I was warned that rehab would take four months. Sometimes it’s an emotion about a particular day, like remembering being with my mother around Mother’s Day last year knowing that it was the last visit I would share with her before her passing. Sometimes it’s the fatigue of a weekend where everything goes awry. Sometimes it’s the simple, ridiculous, crazy joy of pushing wide the front curtains one morning to discover the first iris blossom had opened in a patch that promised many more.

In the middle of all this unsorted mental buzz, a new book series is taking shape. In fact, it’s just come under contract, and a year from now, you can be holding the first story in your hand. I’m sure I’ll be saying more as the story settles in, we have firm titles, and all that sort of thing. I’ll be excited to share when the news is more solid, but right now I’m ecstatic to be diving into another manuscript after quite a hiatus for various needful reasons.

Whatever the unsorted mental buzz is going on in your head, I hope that in there somewhere is something that you’re excited about and something that makes you look forward to getting past the rough stuff and back to what you love doing!