My first day working to finish my book was a bumpy thing. Somebody ran up some impressive charges in my name on Facebook and I awoke with a start to a big bill for things I did not order or buy. Facebook is one of those new kinds of companies, they are happy to take your money, but you can’t speak with them unless you are a police officer.

I spent the first few hours of the morning trying to sort out this mess, I had to call my bank and then Paypal (they do answer the phone and spent fruitless time trying to phone, e-mail, live chat with FB. No luck, but I did stop the payment, which would have emptied a good chunk of my bank account had it gone through.) The morning was pretty much shot. I had to food shop and I wrecked my back the other day lifting garbage cans and wood from the woodpile. I can barely stand up straight, I look like Quasimodo on Medicare, and felt like the poor soul also.

John Updike is my writing mentor, he wrote beautifully about creative work.  You cannot do creative work when you are angry, distracted or in pain, he often wrote, and since I was all three, I got about three paragraphs down. Tomorrow, I’ll try again early in the morning, and then to the chiropractor for some hopefully miraculous work on my back. The Open House is next weekend (the hurricane is sparing us a visit then) and I will be up and moving around quite a bit. I don’t wish to do it in pain.

Still, pain is part of life, it will not stop me for long. In the afternoon mail, i got word that my health insurance had been canceled – nothing personal, they are canceling the whole plan I was a part of. Pamphlets are on the way, I have a month or so to figure it out. Since I had open heart surgery and have diabetes, I am grateful for health plans and will do my homework.

This is life, yes, challenges and surprises every day. My plans mean nothing to the wider world, and yes, I have heard that our plans are God’s joke. Tomorrow, I will get up early and take another good crack at it. God is not involved in my books, they are my responsibility and I am building steadily to it, like the great furnace on a big ship.

And my day began with great beauty, we walked under a brilliant, intense sky – I think the hurricane’s edge appeared over us. I looked ahead and saw two women I love – Maria and Fate walking ahead through the cornstalk rows, harvested just a day or so ago.

What Can I Do? I can sip a cup of warm tea, pet the dogs, strike a match and light a fire. I can turn a page and read my book. I can point my big camera and press the shutter. I can close my eyes and walk in awe and wonder at the world before me.