I had assumed that when the cast came off of my broken wrist, I would quickly return to normal activity. Alas, recuperation is slower and more complicated that I had thought, and although daily progress in flexibility and strength is encouraging, regular use is still a long way off. The rhythm of my days, so different from pre-Pecos times, has assumed a kind of normality now that allows me to relax into it and maintain patience and kindness toward my arm.
The challenge of physical therapy is balanced by the luxury of catching up with books and videos that have been waiting on my physical and digital shelves, some of them for years. Among the art-related books: Inside the painter's studio (Figg), A memoir of creativity (Halasz), A Giacometti portrait (Lord), Color: A natural history of the palette (Finlay), Seven days in the art world (Thornton), A painter of our time (Berger), Daybook (Truitt), The creative habit (Tharpe), The age of insight (Kandel).
Although my left hand is proving remarkably adept -- I can even write legibly with it -- occasional attempts to paint are met with pain and frustration. So, as the weeks roll by, I stoke the fires and cultivate mindfulness.
