Two sessions split by a phone call.
Session 1: 31m - 613 words
Session 2: 1h 21m - 1,704 words
For the last 23 months, I've been worried I will never be able to write with the speed and joy I had before I ended an unsatisfactory writing arrangement in January 2024. In the last 22 months, I've worked to recover from that betrayal, taken on a day job and left after eight months of subtle (and not so subtle) workplace bullying ending my career in that field, saw my mother through the last five months of terminal cancer, continued to help my father deal with his grief - and then the onset of dementia (long distance), adapted to looking for work from home, worked through the process to have my daughter's autism officially diagnosed, and assisted my husband to make the transition from being the main bread-winner to being unemployed, to being diagnosed with the onset of Huntingtons...and to coping with that and the government hoops and medical appointments that all that involves, and while I do that I've been adjusting to watching the man I've known for over 30 years slowly unbecome, as he deteriorates both mentally and physically - and I've also had to accept that having undiagnosed autism (my diagnosed daughter has the same symptoms) lends some added layers of difficulty to something that is already a challenge, and to research and/or create strategies to cope with that, too. Progress in getting back on track has been lumpy and slow, and there have been many moments when I thought I'd never write sustainably again - but writing is too much a part of me to ever give up. The progress I've made over the last month has helped me remember how it was done, and shown me that, yes, I *can* do it again by giving me the impetus I needed to actually keep trying for that consistency. So, thank you, Craig, for the challenge, and thank you to everyone else for just being around and in the challenge. Your presence has been what I've needed to get past this last hurdle...and only the next few months will tell if I truly have, but so far, so good. Let's keep it up.
