When Life Throws You a Curveball

I’d hoped to spend my weekend hanging out in DC with my high school roommate that I haven’t seen in 20 years. I’d planned to eat Malaysian food with her (where we went to boarding school together), spend some quiet time in my hotel room doing some needed revisions on my middle grade novel, and taking in a museum or two.

But instead, I spent the last 5 days in the hospital with my husband. He was miserable, and I was fearful. Plans of all sorts were derailed. I kept thinking back to a post by Michael Hyatt where he poses this question: “What does this make possible?”

Here’s what these last 5 days made possible:

1. Uninterrupted time with my husband. The first day or so was filled with some pain. But when he started telling jokes, I knew he was feeling better.

2. Prayers and kindnesses that came from my friends. You know who you are–the friends that took care of my kids to give my mom a break, brought me goodies, and prayed with me.

3. Time to read and read and read–more time that I would have ever had if I’d been at home with the laundry and the cooking and the writing and the kids’ activities. Unfortunately, many of these duties fell to my mom. Fortunately, she was in town and not out of the country.

4. Time to THINK. Sometimes my mind can run wild with worry. But when I knew my husband was okay and was being monitored, then I had time to THINK. Candice Ransom is teaching a class at Hollins this summer about writing the regional novel. She emphasized that sometimes we need to unplug and give ourselves time to THINK. Writing requires thinking. I’ve been hesitating on starting my new novel because I really had no idea where it was going. One night when the hospital room was quiet, and I was too uncomfortable to sleep in the chair, my tired mind worked out one of the big plot threads in my book. I don’t have it all figured out, but I have enough figured out that I can move forward.

5. Writing time. I’ve had time to write. I wasn’t barricaded in a nice hotel room, but I did have the quiet and the space to work.

Luckily, I had a writing bag already packed, so my mom was able to pick it up and bring it to me.

Life did throw us a curveball, but I hope we’ll soon be back in the game.