A lot happened in my life last week. I had extra meetings and calls that ended in unexpected prayers of blessing, I got an email approval from my insurance for the purchase of my new wheelchair after five months of waiting, I got a super long email from the HR department at school about how to sign up for the AstraZenica vaccine now that our state is bumping teachers up the list, and I submitted the documents to self-publish my first book.
With all that going on, the blog post this weekend got bumped to Monday. And I’m not going to give much more because I have high hopes that next week’s post will be a celebration of my new book being available for purchase after a week of me walking well and laughing with students frequently.
I had hilarious moments in class today as students settled in to finish up their second step of Bible study on individual project books and ask me questions about the historical context they could discover in the text itself. This was after a morning workout on my treadmill that gave my legs a good challenge. This evening I’ve been fighting the leg spasms trying to tell me something. I’m not sure if my right ankle is excited that I spent the time on the treadmill and laughed with my students, or if it’s angry that I walked so much this morning, or if it’s eager to move on to the next phase of life where it doesn’t have to fight against my braces all the time.
There is so much good in my life, and I love being able to share and celebrate it, but it doesn’t make the difficult disappear. I’m doing my best to face the struggles with dignity, but some days I’m just ready to walk again. I wish my damaged nerves would catch up to my dreams deferred.
The life I have lets me live in the tension, as Dr. Harper would say. I know I’ll keep getting better physically, so I’ll care for my body in the condition it’s in now with the love and dignity it deserves. I’ll also keep writing and publishing and sharing good things with the world. I didn’t broadcast the timeline of this poetry collection, but it’s been in the works for a few months, and it’s inspired me to move up the trajectory of my next work. I spent most of my call with my spiritual director this morning talking about my planned textbook that I’m already drafting. I’ve got an ambitious writing plan laid out for the rest of this year, and I hope to keep sharing exciting things on this blog and in print.
Come back soon to find my website updated with a link to purchase my illustrated poetry collection thanks to the combined effort of my collaborators Tessa, Morgan, and Chris who helped me create something beautiful that I’m really proud to share.
