"Are you still blogging?" asked my friend Ross.
"Yeah. Why?" I replied.
"Haven't seen much from you lately and just wondered what was going on," he said.
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That conversation is one of several that I've had recently. "What has happened to all of your writing?"
A couple of things.
Every writer has a "muse" - a source of inspiration; a well from which words spring. Some writers think of this in a physical sense - a person, place, etc. In the movie, "The Muse", Albert Brooks plays a screen writer who loses his mojo and ends up hiring Sharon Stone to be his muse because she somehow magically reignites his writing.
Well, I lost my muses: honesty and walking.
I have been as honest as I can be with my writing on this blog but there's a limit to my transparency. I went through a very stressful period in the fall of 2009. I kept writing - sort of - but I couldn't write about what I really wanted to write about because, well, it was just too personal (and no, it had nothing to do with my marriage or my dogs or my own health - it was business relate). I know some people who just are totally transparent in their writing. I guess I'm semi-transparent then. So, I kept quiet. For a writer, this is one of the worst things. Yeah, I journaled about it. But, INFPs aren't satisfied with thoughts and ideas that stay private. They have a strong desire to see their ideas used by others. That's why I got into this to begin with. So, by not sharing what I went through and what I learned, I completely shut off one of the sources of inspiration.
Walking became a big part of my life when I was recovering from a spine injury. I would walk with my dogs nearly every day. I looked forward to it and I'm sure they did too. And during this time, I would have all sorts of things pop into my head. I learned to take a notebook and then later my iPhone to catch the thoughts before they faded. Many of these fragmented ideas turned into posts.
Well, when I injured my knee, I couldn't walk that much. I tried but it generally made my knee worse. So, walking slowly left my routine.
And with it, so did a bunch of ideas.
Then, came the book.
Only my staff, Ellen and a few close friends know about the book.
For several years, people have emailed me, some nicely and some not so nicely, asking why I didn't provide more details on one subject in particular: Runners Knee. I had emails like these:
"What exercises should I do? How do I fix this? I've tried everything and what you're saying makes complete sense! Please tell me more!"
"This is so frustrating! You tell me exactly what is wrong but not how to fix it!"
"Is this just a scam to get me into your clinic? It doesn't seem like a scam but there's nothing here to buy!"
So, I wrote a book that explains how I help people solve the vexing problem of Runners Knee. It's called The Runners Knee Bible.
It took me several months to do it. It's over 200 pages, over 100 images, and about 40 videos of tests and drills. It was quite a project. So, a lot of my energy and time went into the book while also overseeing a clinic and then one other thing which I'll tell you about in a minute. The book is now in editing and will come out as a down-loadable product fairly soon. There's no other resource like it, at least that I know of, and I think the public and maybe even some clinicians will get a lot of help from it.
The other thing that happened was that I started another business.
No, I don't have ADD. It probably seems that way. But, as my wife has gently pointed out, I like to do a lot of stuff. I have a lot of ideas and, as I said, unless these ideas end up being used, I'm not satisfied. Even if the ideas suck. I've had plenty of those too. We have to at least try them out.
And all of this was going on while I was healing a banged up body (shoulder and knee) which ate into my day. As many of you know, rehab is time intensive. I'm not 100 percent, as I recently discovered, but am a lot better. None the less, there are only so many hours in a day. And injuries can siphon off energy in the form of worry; future projections. I did that - still do. I would spend too much time being concerned about the "what ifs" instead of doing my rehab, being focused and moving on.
Now, my new endeavor is taking up a lot of my time. Building a website. Getting the name right. Putting all the various processes together. Trying, experimenting, failing, starting over. Did I mention starting over? I really like what I'm doing and my clients seem to like it as well. But, to really explain it, this post will get a little too long and start off an entirely new set of subjects so I'll save that for another day - likely my next post.
That's what has happened to me and my writing.
I'm walking a little more now and then as my knee has turned the corner. Spencer and Kobe are happy about that. A few ideas floating around. It's as if the movement of my legs turn the wheels of imagination. Oh, and Abby, well, she's fine lying around the house.
So, while my frequency may be less, I am still writing stuff. Some here in The View and some yet to be published on another project whose name we shall not yet mention :-)
Look for The Runners Knee Bible to launch soon. You'll hear about it here for sure.
I'm going for a walk.