I had quit my full-time job on December 31st 2014, and was attempting to fly solo for 2015. Life was beautiful. Around the end of May last year, however, fear started to settle in. I’d had a lot of unexpected expenses, also needed to see a doctor but couldn’t afford the Cobra payments and due to bureaucratic snafus with ObamaCare, I had no insurance (don’t get me started), and my daughter was accepted at the expensive college she applied to. Right about that time, an opportunity came up in a company to work full time with a former boss that I really liked, so I took it and went back to working full-time on 6/8/15.
From then until now, it has been non-stop work and health issues. (I suspect working 60-90 weeks every week, working all holidays and weekends, might have something to do with the health issues, but who’s to say?)
I’ve basically given up my cover art work due to lack of time and energy, as well as the spasms that have developed in my back, right arm, and leg, which cause me to lose control of my limbs at some point nearly every day now. It started getting worse June (hmm… coinciding with the demanding new job… and keeps getting progressively worse.) I saw a doctor who referred me to a neurologist, but since the insurance I have is awful and can’t afford all those tests, I haven’t been back. However, the GP seems to think it’s from stress… go figure…
From January 2015 full of hope to January 2016 wondering what the heck I’m going to do now. L
So, since today is my birthday and I’ve been doing a lot of
hard thinking the past couple of weeks, I took the day off to think about
where I am and what I could change. Came
to the conclusion that self-care, a positive attitude, and daily
meditation on all the things I have go be grateful for will help tremendously. That is
what I plan to focus on for the rest of the year.
I also came up with a writing plan for the year. Since the art is on hiatus until I
can get my arm under control, I’ve installed Dragon dictation software on my
computers and have been having fun training my dragon. J It’s very helpful. In my insanity, I even
attempted NaNoWriMo with it in November and made great progress. Lost my voice for a couple of days, though,
from all that talking. J
Am hopeful that with the dictation software and a good plan,
I might actually get back to writing again and release a couple of books this
year.
Fingers crossed… J
And to you who may be reading this: I wish you and yours
the best year of your lives for 2016.
