It’s true. You might be wondering why I haven’t posted much since February. I must confess that I’m cheating on my blog with another writing project. I’m working on a memoir.
It’s not nearly as pompous as that sounds. Essentially, I’m taking a deep dive into my past to figure out how I became a control freak. As if that’s even possible. I’m saying this out loud because I believe in the power of stating my intention.
The project and I have been together for a long time already. When I first began, it was meant to commemorate my 50th birthday. Well, that was 10 years ago and I’m still working on it. It hasn’t been a complete waste of time. I’ve written a collection of mostly light-hearted essays about my life, called The Book of Joy. It features titles like “Musical Chairs (the search for my first Wheelchair), “Putting The Divine On The Line” (the joys of hanging wet clothes out to dry), and “Wheelchair Math” (things I’ve learned about math because of my wheelchair). That evolved into Second Draft Book of Joy, and then I took a turn to the dark side: writing about the negative aspects of my life. Unfortunately, the first 20 years were book-ended by tragedy.
The version I’m working on now is Losing It: How a Control Freak with MS Learned to Let Go (Sort Of). I’m pretty happy with this one so far. Much of it is already written and needs only to be rearranged. Unfortunately, the pace of writing new material is frustratingly slow. If I had energy like a normal person, working on the two projects simultaneously would be a piece of cake. That’s why I’ve decided to neglect my blog for a little while to focus on the memoir. I’ll still be posting things from time to time because, let’s face it, something will come up inevitably and I’ll feel compelled to write about it.
That’s how I roll.