A Word about Hurdles

Six days ago, I had surgery on my left arm. The long-term effect on my hand is still undetermined. The short-term effect is that I'm typing this post from a gorgeous little independent coffee shop using one hand, like a prize fighter with one hand tied behind his back (yes, I’m inexplicably comparing myself to a boxer – I’m not at my best, Reader)

On my way to said coffee shop, I got a speeding ticket. Me! The woman whose own parents complain, "We are never going to get there if you don't speed up" every time I drive them anywhere at the posted limit. HRFP is not going to be happy about this. I can tell you that for free.

And editing Book One is taking longer than scheduled, because surgery has wrecked my typing speed, my desire to type, and my ability to do anything productive that doesn't involve sitting around feeling profoundly sorry for myself.

So naturally, I turned to the Stoics for comfort.

Marcus Aurelius said, "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." Seneca added, "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."

Two things: Sometimes slow, deliberate, one-handed editing of a murder mystery is the only way over the highest hurdle…and Stoic philosophers who never got a speeding ticket or had to drive my mother anywhere didn’t understand real adversity.