Mining for Gratitude

            My life as I knew came crashing down around me on February 20^th, the day before my birthday. I was out to dinner with my husband for a pre-birthday celebration when I took a brutal fall, landed on my right arm, and broke it in three places. Life as I knew it changed in the blink of an eye. I had reconstructive surgery and spent two weeks in a pain-killer induced daze. After surgery, I lay whimpering in my bed, reduced to a woman with a life-changing injury and a not insignificant amount of pain. Rest was in order. There was no getting around this mandate. I was unable to do anything, and I needed to step away from all my responsibilities in order to heal.

As time went on, the realization of what lay ahead of me quickly became daunting. The woman who typed 100+ words a minute and wrote 2000 words a day was gone. The woman who walked the dogs, managed the house, wrote books, worked as a paralegal, and did so with a smile was gone. The weeks went by, and like all creatures, this writer adapted to her circumstances. My inbox burgeoned, but I ignored it. I had promised authors that I would post their interviews on my webpage, I had marketing content for my latest book release to produce, not to mention that I needed to start outlining the next novel in my new mystery series. None of that mattered now. The only thing that mattered now was rest. Recovery. Anxiety over work went by the wayside. One look at my hand with the bandage off convinced me my overflowing inbox didn’t matter so much. My energy needed to be directed toward healing. I spent my time resting. I listened to audiobooks, watched reruns of my favourite shows (Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie, and Colombo), and did a good deal of sleeping. People in the know tell me healing occurs when the body sleeps. I slept.

            Before this accident I was the type of woman that would push through the pain and force myself to work regardless. Women do so much these days, manage careers, home life, cooking, shopping, kids…the list goes on and on. It seems we are hard wired to do it all. Not me. Not anymore. By virtue of this calamity I’ve been given the gift of an epiphany: self-care is just as important as productivity and meeting other people’s deadlines. Taking ownership of my own fragility has allowed me to see the vulnerability and others. My task now is to use this knowledge to breathe depth into my characters. And as I write this blog entry, I realize that over the past weeks I have spent an awful lot of time mining for gratitude. This fall could have been so much worse. I could’ve broken my left arm — leaving me unable to write — which would have been a tragedy. I could have hit my head. The list goes on and on.

            Yesterday I sat outside in the sunshine with wet hair, a cup of tea in hand, my dogs and my husband in the house. I thought, “This moment right here, this is a peaceful time.” Slowing down. Savouring the simple things. Gratitude—admittedly hard to come by at times—got me through this time of trial.

            I am sharing this poem that I discovered on social media. I’m not sure who wrote it, so if anyone knows the author, please message me and I will add an attribution.

            “Just slow down

            Slow down your speech

            Slow down your breathing

            Show down your walking

            Slow down you eating, and let this slower, steadier pace perfume your mind.

            Just slow down.”

                        Author Unknown

            I’ve copied this down in my journal and I have it hanging over my computer. It serves as a reminder to savor the precious moments in life. Because things can change. In the blink of an eye everything can fall apart.

            



     The good news is that I am healing! The next book is percolating. Wishing you peace and good things. 

Thanks for stopping by Novel Points of View.