Writer's Diary #10
Concussions and writing don't mix
Sometimes in life you just gotta laugh or you’ll go crazy.
For months I’d been planning new things for this Substack, and then a couple of weeks ago started enacting those plans. I was to be back on a scheduled routine for publishing more frequently, and I was already working on getting several writing ideas down in writing to publish over several weeks.
Then I got a concussion.
Everyone keeps asking me how: I was playing with my two-year-old son. I playfully (and very safely!) tackled him, but I underestimated how hard I would hit the ground — and how hard the ground actually was. I landed, sorta whiplashed myself sideways, and viola! Concussion.
That was about two weeks ago, and I haven’t really been able to read much (or anything) since then, especially not on a screen — and since writing and typing require me to read over what I’m writing, writing has been out of the picture too.
My eyes are kinda back to normal now, though, so I can type this up now and pass on the little humorous update without feeling like my head’s going to explore or my eyes are going to fall out. I won’t be back up to normal speed quite yet, so I’ll still be slow on publishing (what’s new?). But I’m getting there. Soon enough — Lord-willing — I’ll be able to get going again and work on all the other things I have pending for Catch Me If You Can. Your patience, prayers, and continued support are greatly appreciated.
From the Church Calendar
Thursday after the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost Feast of the Presentation of the B.V.M. (Blessed Virgin Mary) St. Gelasius, Bishop and Confessor St. Columbanus, Abbot 2024 A.D.
From My Reading
Haven’t been able to read, so there’s not really much to say here. But I’ll pass along these two poems I assigned to my students to read and work through on these days that I’ve been recovering from the concussion: I find Silence to be somewhat fitting to the increasingly cold stillness of late autumn as winter approaches, and Those Winter Sundays a timely expression of ‘bittersweet gratitude’ that I find appropriate for the cold season and for Thanksgiving which is right around the corner.
Silence by Billy Collins There is the sudden silence of the crowd above a player not moving on the field, and the silence of the orchid. The silence of the falling vase before it strikes the floor, the silence of the belt when it is not striking the child. The stillness of the cup and the water in it, the silence of the moon and the quiet of the day far from the roar of the sun. The silence when I hold you to my chest, the silence of the window above us, and the silence when you rise and turn away. And there is the silence of this morning which I have broken with my pen, a silence that had piled up all night like snow falling in the darkness of the house— the silence before I wrote a word and the poorer silence now.
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blue black cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?
Some Thoughts & Stories
Earlier this week a co-worker asked me how my head was doing. Better, I told him. God has a funny way of slowing us down sometimes, he said, but it’s weird because you’re already so slow.
Another co-worker chipped in: Yeah, they have a saying for you: ‘Fajardo-slow.’
Writing Updates
Poetry, poetry, poetry. That’s what I’ve been working on. It’s been about a year since I’ve dedicated myself to writing almost exclusively in haiku’s. I’ve loved it!
Closing Out
I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse. While recovering, I’ve been forced to do almost nothing. And even as I’ve eased back into my normal routines and workloads, reading has been the last thing to incorporate anew because of how much it strained my eyes and hurt my head. The dilemma here is that when I have free time I always like to read and write; so all of a sudden I had no idea what to do with all this time since I couldn’t read or write anymore. Among other things, it brought me back around to my prayer rule that I’ve struggled to keep up with for a long time now, meaning primarily that I’ve finally been able to prayer my daily rosary once again. It really is a profound and impactful spiritual devotion. Getting the chance to commit myself to it once again was an unexpected opportunity, but I’m so much better off because of it.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.
-Augy