Ass-backward hibernation

Well, it's official, I'll be in charge of the San Antonio College Writing Center again. Only this time, it will be just me and one other coordinator running the show. I can't wait to get started. I have so many ideas, and I feel truly privileged to have the opportunity. This is a supplementary position to teaching, so I'll still have two classes and my freelance work. I just hope I can keep up with everything.

Ironically, I haven't been able to do much of anything this month, and I'm having a tough time with it. There, I said it. No sugarcoating. If you follow this blog, you already know that I have a ruptured tendon in my hand/wrist. The injury is preventing me from using my right hand to do just about anything. And it's a constant, dull pain. I've been doing my best. I use voice recognition software for email and social media, and sometimes, like now, I just type left-handed.

Here's the thing: Writing is my Prozac. It's my therapist, my mirror, my stress relief. It's how I work out needless worry and manage necessary concerns. And I miss it. I've been going through a lot of emotional distress lately, and sure, much of it has come from the pain. But I think most of it comes from simply not being able to write. And though I know that this will pass, the injury will heal, right now it sucks.

I'm a strong believer that illness is often my body's way of telling me to slow down. Forcing me, rather. And slow down I have! With the new position, I'm sure I'll need it. In the meantime, I'm healing, hibernating, storing up ideas and reorganizing old work. I'm preparing myself for a lot of wonderful things to come this fall. It's so easy to forget when in the middle of it, but the pain does pass. I should know this by now.


Check out To Begin Again, an award-winning collection of short stories & Musical Chairs, a memoir about rebellion and reinvention.