When Life Throws You a Curve Ball

It’s crazy. Just when I have plotted out my life for the next umpteen months and settled back to work the plan, Life throws me a curve ball. It shouldn’t surprise me.

Enough seasons have passed through my earth-bound existence that I should know better than to think any long-term plan will play out exactly as I have envisioned it. It must be the optimist in me, for I keep planning.

Or maybe it’s my insanity. You know the old definition of lunacy: doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different outcome.

However, my recent roadblocks are just that–little obstacles. The unanticipated hiccups don’t really change my plans. My destination is still the same: write books. Now, I will have a few detours through unfamiliar neighborhoods. That can be a good thing, right? It adds color, dimensions, flavor to my collection of life experience.

I’ll stop rambling and be more concrete.

I make my living by farming. I make hay, cut wood, and grow vegetables for selling. This year I planned to add the sale of landscaping stone to my product line. Due to another hiccup in my life plan, my way of making a living was to be more important than ever in 2013. But. . . .

Karma has other plans. I have torn my rotator cuff. I am scheduled for surgery soon and will be convalescing for six months afterward. No farming this season. No farming means no income.

Thankfully, there is nothing wrong with my brain. So I have to ask myself, is the Universe clearing a path for me to write?

A Nice Example of Karma

Author Timothy Hallinan is a nice guy. See him at www.timothyhallinan.com. He is the kind of author who likes helping newbies reach up and grab the bottom rung of the professional ladder. It’s not beneath him to lend a helping hand.

On his website, he has a summary of his year. What I’d like to point out is not only did Tim have a good year professionally, he also had a good year as a humanitarian. I’d like to think the two are connected somehow in this great cosmos of ours. That’s karma at work.

Taken from Tim’s web site:

“It’s been quite a year so far.

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, the fourth Poke Rafferty thriller, was nominated for two major awards, the Edgar and the Macavity.

I finished and put online the second book in my ebook series of Junior Bender Mysteries, LITTLE ELVISES.  This one was a lot of fun to write, and I hope it’s also fun to read.

It was my pleasure to contribute a story to BANGKOK NOIR, a collection of stories set in the Big Mango – written by some remarkable storytellers, and for a great cause—taking care of Bangkok’s poorest children.

And finally, moved by the ongoing tragedy in Japan, I edited an e-book collection of original short stories by twenty of our finest mystery writers.  SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN went online for the Amazon Kindle on the three-month anniversary of the disaster.  We’re all proud to have made a small contribution to putting people’s world, and their lives, where possible, back together.”

My hope is that I, too, will use my skills, influence and/ or success to help others. My thanks to Tim for being a role model.