As if writing a book isn’t enough of a challenge!

TOO FAR DOWN IS FINALLY COMING!!! OCTOBER!!!

I’ve tossed around ideas for a blog post for today and I am telling you all I can think of is the last couple of months and my stupid EYEBALL SURGERY!!!!!!

Yes, I know, I’ve whined until people’s ears are bleeding. And I know the challenges others face.

For some reason every time I say, Eye surgery, I seem to be met with, “Well, my neighbor is taking chemo…my sister’s child is in the hospital…my friend lives in Houston and lost EVERYTHING.

Okay, I get it. Count your blessings. Lots of people have it worse. I KNOW!

And I am grateful that such excellent surgery exists that I am going to be fine.

But still…it’s been a long couple of months!

I

My new writing posture. Left hand numb. Grrrr!

’ve spent too much of it having to hold my computer ridiculously close to my face because my eyes are just not working right. The surgery either messed up the eye glasses prescription I need or…I need more healing time. As a result, I hold the computer funny if I really want to COMFORTABLY read. I spend most of my writing time Uncomfortably reading…BUT TO COMFORTABLY READ I balance my laptop with my left hand while I type with one finger on my right hand. And because of that, my left hand is now numb. I’ve looked it up…and know the cure. Stop bending your elbow so much. It’s called cubital tunnel syndrome. It’s like carpal tunnel is to your WRIST this is to your elbow.

I’m sure in an effort to cure that I’ll cause some other affliction. (whining again)

I’m getting to my point.

Sometimes we have to just keep going. I picture those folks in Houston wading through waist deep water. They just keep going. Through hardship, tragedy, loss…against the current…whatever is happening to you, sometimes as writers with deadlines…or even without deadlines but with a desire to get our story onto paper…we just do our best. We struggle on.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now to me, as a rule, this verse is something you say at a funeral. I remember saying it, or maybe thinking it, at my dad’s funeral. “He fought the good fight.”

Which to me just meant he lived his faith to the end through a long, slow, hard death from cancer.

But it also means to me right now…getting through. Not through life, but through hardship.

Which brings me to another point, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” (no I’m not complaining…much…about this stupid eye…because this is an old question) The answer to this question is that God’s first love for us, his first priority for us, is our souls.

Yes he loves us and intercedes with our lives through our prayers, but bad things do happen, despite our prayers. But we need to check with what is happening through these hard times to our SOULS. God tends us on a spiritual level. If a child dies a lingering death, but has a true faith, then there I rejoicing in heaven.

If a wealthy, comfortable man lives to be 93 and dies surrounded by love and family and furniture bought at Neiman Marcus, but doesn’t believe…then to God this is a tragic life.

So it’s time to remember this. Has the eye surgery, the struggle, the stupid numb hand affected my soul? No. I won’t say this has been a spiritually enlightening time either. It’s just been a time to fight the good fight. To finish the race. To endure and mostly…to keep the faith.

We all go through this. Life isn’t a stroll through a bed of roses. There’s a reason they call where we live now the earth. Why earthly things can be fraught with trouble. Because the earth is the earth. It's a separation from God that is healed in heaven.

So I type weird. I’m far more prone to typos thanks to blurry eyes. I’ve had to cancel a trip because my eye doctor sez I’ll go blind in an airplane (still planning on ACFW--I hope). I have a weird dark bubble in my left eye, like looking through tinted sunglasses in a circle that covers about 1/3 of my eye. It's getting smaller but man-oh-man is it slow...The doctor also said if I flew in a plane the pain would be so awful I’d be screaming at the pilot to land, to let me off.

I told him to chill with the drama. He had me at blind. But I could tell he liked the ‘screaming’ part of his diagnosis, and he couldn’t be stopped.

I type on. I’ve let far too much go in the rest of my life, but I’ll make my book deadline…hopefully with a book not loaded with typos. I’ve got a daughter lined up to read it before I send it. Check for typos that don't light up spell check. 'If' instead of 'in'. 'Us' instead of 'up'. Stuff like that.

I’ll add another less Biblical saying. When at last you come to the end of your rope…tie a knot and hang on.

Or how about one my beloved mother-in-law used to say.

This too shall pass.

Hang in there. This too shall pass. Keep the faith.

Leave a comment...I'd like to here ONE TIME in your life you struggled. Please let it not only be ME who is a whiner.

To get your name in the drawing you've got to mention at least one STRUGGLE!

General comments are welcome but today's giveaway is to those who struggled.

Now it is time for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A PRIZE!!!!!!!!

BOOK #3 IN THE CIMARRON LEGACY SERIES IS HERE AT LAST!!!

I WILL PICK A WINNER NOW AND SEND THE BOOK AS SOON AS I GET IT.

TOO FAR DOWN

Smother yourself....on doctor's orders. HARSH

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