Happy October! I love this month. The chill, sunny days. The rich colors and smells. And this year, the promise of healing for me.
After a long struggle with eating only pureed foods for two months, losing twenty pounds, abdominal surgery, an abscess, and lots of discomfort and pain, I'm ready to breathe deeply of the fresh fall and begin again. Thursday will be six weeks since my surgery, which is supposed to be the magical turning point when I can start moving more freely and doing very light exercises to rebuild my poor, lost muscles. Every day I feel a little more mobile.
For almost three months now I've spent most of my time on my couch, and I find myself longing to LIVE again. I've sowed some hardship lately (though it could have been SO much worse) and I'm ready to reap some joy. To really live in the abundance of joy Christ offers. I miss deep belly laughter and activities that move my body, like hiking through the woods with my husband. The above picture is from just such a hike. I really miss working out! Though it will still be some time before I can exercise like I had been. Abdominal surgery is no joke. Heck, I miss cleaning my own house and doing my own laundry. Hubs has been doing everything while working full time (really, everything) without complaint, and I'm so grateful. But so done sitting around.
As my dear Anne Shirley said, "I don't know what lies around the next bend, but I'm going to believe the best does." I'm excited for a new season of life. For the fervor this season has given me. I'm sure it's given me much more, and I look forward to watching those lessons and miracles unfold in hindsight.
Slowly, I have been immersing myself again in the lives of refugees. It is not merely trending news fading into the white noise of the latest story, people's lives are still being torn apart, people are still trying to reestablish some semblance of a life in a new and foreign place.
The truth is, it takes a lot of emotional energy for me to enter a head space wherein I can start thinking about writing, and I haven't even tried to get there in months. So far, it's all sounded intimidating and draining to me. But that choice to enter into it or not is a luxury, and the topic of the sequel I'm planning is important.
I believe it's vital to our compassion as human beings to immerse ourselves in the stories of others all over the world. The practice gives us perspective and pulls us and others out of the boxes we use to compartmentalize people. The goal of No Way but Through, and the sequel, is to challenge us to tear those boxes down and imagine ourselves in others' stories.
So, I started reading world news again and reacquainting myself with my characters and story lines. I won't lie, I have yet to get really excited about it, but that will come. I think I want to experience some of my own normal life first. Get reacquainted with myself.
Anyway, my husband and I have been learning a lot about the enneagram personalities, so I'm going to assign an enneagram number to each of my beloved characters and get to know them better! Once I do that, I'll share it with you all, it will be fun!
I'm a 2 and my husband is a 5. We're pretty different, but we balance each other out really well. What number are you? Let me know!
And, if you haven't read No Way but Through yet, you'll want to go to this link and read it so you can get to know the characters. Be ready to dive deeply into the lives of refugees around the world.
