Writing Prompt from Lee Martin: Choose someone from your past whom you haven’t seen in several years. If you were to see them, what would you say and/or do?

I’ve missed her. 

Dreadfully.  It’s been a good long while now, too long since I’ve communed with her.  The last time we interacted, she was just hitting her stride.  And then her world fell apart – emotionally, politically, creatively, and physically. 

The years have passed slowly in some respects and like a galloping racehorse in others.  Any way you look at it, too many years have passed.

She is me.

I have not been myself.  The cumulative stress, combined with the COVID disaster and the sudden and rapid decline in my health, stole my life. I didn’t fight hard enough to keep it.  Or maybe I did fight hard,  but I was too exhausted to prevail.  Nearly four years of mayhem have demolished life as I knew it.

I’m getting my mojo back. I don’t know what the catalyst was or is. I have, as they say, turned a corner. I am doing much better and am feeling much better.  I’m not completely up to speed yet, and I may never be due to permanent neurological damage, but I feel like I’m running on all cylinders again.

I plan on taking better care of her.  Pampering her, even.  My inner voice has been dejected and grieving for much too long.  I hope for a return to joy and exhilaration – having hope is a good thing. It’s been dark and stormy. 

It feels good to get out of the rain, to feel like myself again, and to look forward to what is most likely the last twenty years of my life.  I intend to live with verve and tenacity. 

[An aside:  I cannot believe I’m going to quote Star Trek. No.  I’m not a Trekkie.]

As Picard would say, “Make it so, Number 1.”

NOTE: This post resulted from a writing prompt offered up by the fabulous Lee Martin on his blog. I had the good fortune to meet him at a West Virginia Writers Conference. Not only is he a talented writer (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), Lee is also a genuine and genuinely nice guy.