Learning by Accident

The book is coming along nicely, but more slowly than I anticipated. While I turn my own work around quickly, I have no control over the production team, and I want a nearly perfect product, so I need to be patient.

Patience is a virtue I lack; and it's the single virtue my own life seems to be trying to teach me all the time. I've become an expert at counting to ten, breathing deeply, and telling myself, "Hey, it's just a book. It's just a book about your own life's work. It's just a book containing a story I've been bursting to tell for nearly ten years. That's all. It's just a book."

I promise you, it's coming. Nothing is written in stone, but THERE WILL BE A BOOK.  I will let you know as soon as I have a date.

Thank you for your patience!

Thoughts on Caregiving Inspired by the Beach

The one time in life that it’s good to let go is when you're dealing with a long-term medical crisis. Yes, let go. Stop hanging on to your routine; stop wishing you could go back to normal. Remember that you’re caught in a riptide, being carried out to sea, to a place you’ve never been before. Relax, or fight the current at your peril. For the current is unrelenting. Let it take you where it will—through shock, denial, and despair—because swimming against the current will exhaust you till you drown.

Instead, swim parallel to the shore, breathe deeply, and remain calm. Gaze into the blue sky, marvel at the churning of the water. Watch the memory of yourself on the distant shore—the self you used to be, before you knew how erratically and unpredictably your world could flip—and know that when you eventually step back on that shore, you will be changed, and that change won’t necessarily be all bad. You will have gained a new respect for the fleeting human life span. You will yearn to seek out meaning, and may even finally learn to love yourself and others without holding back.