hiatus and digression

I have taken a break from writing, not deliberately, but because the last two weeks have proven to be a hiatus from my normal activities. A broken wrist is deceptively disruptive to normality; one can still walk and talk and do everything, except -- oops, I need two hands for this, and for that, and for that.... Any regular activity comes to an abrupt halt until one figures out how to do it one-handed.

Added to the constant adjustment to the nuisances and aches of the wrist, two weeks ago we adopted a pair of 8-week-old kittens that had been abandoned at a local church. Getting them settled and examined and vaccinated and comfortable with us took a week; the second week (just past) has been devoted to keeping track of them as they take over the house. Since I have been happy for an excuse to rest, I have spent much time with Maia and Queso.

Also, I have taken a momentary digression on the creative side. With the fall and the fracture, I realized how unaware of the space around me I have become. Back when I was dancing, I always knew my relationship with the space and the objects around me. On a visit to a friend's house, I happened upon Alvin Ailey Dance Moves!, which morphed me, in my imagination, back into dancing days. So, with a copy of my own, I have taken time each day to begin to move in a self-aware way, doing those exercises from the book that I can, and trying throughout the day to move like a dancer. This is mostly a question of habit and mind-set, and I've used the hiatus to start to shift that particular focus back into a creative mode.

Lastly, the workshop with Rebecca (see previous posts) is just ahead, and I am probably not really going to paint until I am there. I was in the studio a few days ago, and I wanted to know what I won't learn until the workshop before I continued any of the current paintings. What with everything else going on, at this point I've put studio work on hold. I know that the workshop will give me a huge push back into productivity, and my wrist brace comes off just after I get back. So, I am riding out the month on a long coasting slide, into a re-energized August.