While I was in Portland a couple of weeks ago, I must have slept wrong on the fancy feather pillows at The Hotel Zags. Ever since then, my neck has been in knots and refused to participate in basic human movement.
And because the universe enjoys a themed experience, my wrist hurts too.
Somewhere while packing for my getaway, I must’ve twisted it. I don’t even remember when it happened. One minute, I’m pulling my suitcases out of the garage. The next, my wrist starts acting like I’d spent a week jerking off construction workers.
So now the entire right side of my body is basically staging a labor strike.
My neck hurts. My wrist hurts. My shoulder feels suspicious. Even my posture has developed a sort of haunted, hunched-over quality.
Fun stuff.
The weird thing about pain isn’t always the pain itself. It’s the distraction. The friction. The way it sneaks into every tiny part of the day and turns simple tasks into exhausting ones.
Editing photos? Pain.
Making montages? Pain.
Writing Substack posts? Pain.
Sleeping? Somehow also pain.
Even eating breakfast has become a high-stakes, wrist-based event.
Unfortunately, freelance work doesn’t come with paid sick days or reassuring emails from Human Resources telling me to “rest and recover.”
Which is why I’m especially grateful for my paid subscribers. Your support genuinely helps keep me going, figuratively and literally. And thank you as well for your patience, support, and patronage while I struggle to get myself back up to speed.
When I slow down, work slows down. Posting slows down. Income slows down. Some subscribers drift off into the digital wilderness in search of creators whose musculoskeletal systems are a little more cooperative than mine at the moment.
Being freelance is great when everything’s working. And I do mean everything.
When inspiration is flowing. When projects are moving. When my body isn’t behaving like I got shoved down a staircase. And honestly, let’s not even get into my brain.
But when I physically can’t focus because every muscle on the right side of my body is throbbing and stiff? “The Glamorous Life” of a creative suddenly looks like me squinting at my computer while wearing a heating pad like a widow in a period drama.
Still, I’m trying to get my professional life back on track. Not in some dramatic “rise and grind” motivational speaker kind of way. More in an “eat breakfast, answer emails, ice wrist, survive” kind of way.
Because honestly, growth looks a lot less glamorous than people pretend it does.
Sometimes growth is just gritting your teeth and doing what you can with the body, mind, and spirit you’ve got that day.
Sometimes resilience is stretching your neck for the fifth time and still managing to edit a few photos. Sometimes focus means accepting that both your body and brain are operating at half capacity but showing up anyway.
And sometimes achey really does require a break-y.
And some brekkie. Preferably with lots of carbs.
So that’s where I’m at right now: sore, stiff, hungry, mildly cranky, and trying to rebuild momentum one small task at a time.
I may not be 100% physically. But creatively? I’m still in the game, damnit.
Keep calm and get your healing on!
Clint 🌈✌️
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PHOTOS OF THE DAY
FROM THE ARCHIVES
BORN THIS WAY ON THIS DAY
05-12 = Edward Lear (1812-1888) = English artist, musician, and writer 🌈
05-12 = Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) = British nurse and social reformer 🌈
05-12 = Gerry Studds (1937-2006) = American politician 🌈
05-12 = Jared Polis (1975- ) = American politician and businessman 🌈
05-12 = Joan Nestle (1940- ) = American writer and archivist 🌈
05-12 = Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) = American actor 🌈
05-12 = Lola Flash (1959- ) = American photographer and activist 🌈
05-12 = Margaret Cuthbert (1887-1968) = Canadian-American broadcaster 🌈
05-12 = Robbie Rogers (1987- ) = American professional soccer player 🌈
MAN CRUSH(ES) OF THE DAY
“We need to risk, we need to dare to risk and fail greatly because that’s the only way we grow.”
Emilio Estevez
“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”
George Carlin
Oy, Clint, I feel your pain. Literally, babe. I awake each morning with pain in the back of my neck because of my two-pillow habit. It barely subsides throughout the day. Thank you, Michael, for the recommendation! Now, on to more significant issues: inquiring eyes need to see photographic evidence of you jerking off construction workers. Please and thank you, Clint/Brian!
🎬📸