I'm Back.... I know for the third time

So - this blog has been a lot of starts and stops.  It seems that just when I get into a decent posting groove, life throws me a curve ball that I don't see and it knocks me flat on my back.  But in the name of all things positive, I'm not giving up.  Although truth be told I was going to pull all of my posts down until I started reading them and remembered how much I love writing and sharing with unseen readers.  

And..... after eight months of attempting to have my novel picked up by an agent.... I love the power of self publishing.

Catching up on the year past.... I had written about my partial rupture in my Achilles tendon before I took a break.  Perhaps the last time I posted I wasn't aware that it was a partial rupture, but that's what it ended up being.  I spent from December of 2015 until October of 2016 rehabbing and recovering.  After a great deal of rest and an entirely new way of viewing my body's alignment, I am finally able to run short distances at a pace that I once would have considered embarrassing.  But I'm running and am so grateful to be able to do so.

As the final weeks of 2016 approached, almost everyone was saying they were happy to see the year gone.  It seemed to have been a difficult one for a lot of people and I was certainly no exception. Early last year, I experienced a huge personal loss in my life that threw me off course.  It shattered my belief in happy endings or even a sense of fairness.  That darkness was heaped onto other issues I had been dealing with and I found myself quite lost.  It has taken me a year to work toward and find acceptance in my situation and most days I am there.  And the one thing that I find myself clinging to is knowing that the person I lost always found the positive in each situation and fought for each day.  And that thought right there is my inspiration.

Of course 2016 wasn't all doom and gloom.  I finished my first unpublished novel and worked to find representation.  I had three requests for my full manuscript out of forty submissions, which I hear are pretty decent odds.  I also received three very polite and encouraging declines for representation which are hear are fairly standard.  I'm working on my second novel and taking a much longer time during the rewrite process.  I've been fortunate to connect with two talented aspiring writers at workshops over the past year and we are all helping with critiquing.  I promise to keep you posted.

I went on two amazing vacations - Sedona and the Grand Canyon and Iceland and Paris.  Both were beautiful and awe inspiring.  

                                          

I also became a certified Pilates Mat instructor and am currently working toward my level II Reformer instructor certification.  Pilates changed the way I think about my body and the bodies of my students.  It changed the way I teach my classes and allowed me to be able to run again.  Something that two bouts of physiotherapy and osteopathy weren't able to correct.  (I'm not saying that those areas of treatment don't have a use - they certainly do. Pilates allowed me to understand why I kept setting myself up for injury over and over.)  Nonetheless I will tell people Pilates saved my life.

Finally, I have had a personal studio built in my basement which I am in love with.  I never have an excuse not to workout and not that I would.  I'm offering private personal training sessions to a few clients and am loving having people share this space with me.

So 2017 -  so far, the outside world at times has felt dark.  But the past year has brought so many new people and my most treasured friends even closer.  I am excited for this next venture.  I'm dusting myself off and shedding the things in my life that no longer work for me and hopefully back to posts on a regular basis..... fingers crossed.