Dressing for the job
This is how you make me cry early on a Saturday morning. Screenshots below if you’d rather not click the link.
My first print run is now completely sold out, but more are on the way. Order your own copy and help make this book the bestseller I know it can (and should) be.
Even though the saying is “dress for the job you want,” for the last three weeks, I’ve been dressing for the job I have: healing from this pinched nerve. My wardrobe has been mostly new activewear pants I ordered from Athleta (and they are fab, BTW), paired with tank tops or loose fitting tops to make physio easier.
My clinic visits are my new gig; I am going three times per week. I have never been so aggressive with my recovery before. I am terrible at taking care of my injuries, often pushing through to get my other work done. But on Friday, as the PT was working on my neck and shoulder, I realized my body can’t heal like it did when I was in my 20s and 30s. And I also realized that if I don’t continue to get help from physiotherapy, I may never heal at all.
I’m all in, even though our benefits ran out after five visits and it’s all out of pocket. I’m all in, even though I’m not working at all right now (not writing because it hurts and legal work is not coming in anyways). I’m all in, because I refuse to suffer. Once the pinched nerve is resolved, I’ll move on to physio for an old rotator cuff injury and my arthritic knee. I can’t build strength from points of weakness and pain.
So I’m necessarily taking care of myself for a change. I miss my jeans, and I look longingly at them. I felt great getting dressed with purpose yesterday, as I spent the day at a holiday market selling books. I dressed for the job I wanted—seĺling books—and I had fantastic results. It was nice to be moving around, engaging with new readers, and signing books as they sold.
xo Dana
What I’m reading
I’m fully involved in The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. This 816-page tome is loaded with the lineage of an African-American family. It’s full of history and hatred, accomplishments and heartbreak, trauma and the bonds of family. It’s incredible. I’ve been reading the ebook, but I’m glad I borrowed the audiobook from the library so I could listen in the middle of the night as I manage my pain. Highly recommend this book if epic novels following a generations is your jam.
