The Plaster Does Not have to stay on Forever

A Day in the Life of an Author

By Kim Vermaak

Do you ever feel disconnected? This morning I did.  I completed my normal routine.  Get up, read my bible app, hydrate, eat protein and get down to work, while the children were still asleep.

I had committed to writing an article for a new woman’s networking group and had to cover some extra work in for book three of “The Chronicles of Nadine” series. I put on some instrumental worship music because listening to songs with lyrics just overwhelms me when I am trying to form my own.

But still I felt disconnected.  Then I realised what it was the plaster that I had on my finger. My flying fingertips on the keyboard turns my thoughts into the words that paint pictures in my readers’ minds. It is where sunsets cast their brilliant fiery crimson light over the brilliant green and delicate pattern of leaves of ancient gnarled oaks. Where despair blossoms into hope as the silhouette of a knight’s form moving to the rhythm on the pounding muscles of an inky black stallion’s thunders towards the maiden captured by the evil warlord

I must be fully present when these images flow through me and onto the pages which are yet to manifest themselves onto the hands of readers.

Yesterday I felt the piercing discomfort of a cut on my right index finger. Although I only type at a speed of an average of 13 to 16 words a minute. I do this with only three of my ten fingers. The left and right index fingers craft the words and my ring finger on my right hand visits the space bar.  So, losing even partial sensations of my right index figures renders me a third less effective in my word count.

As anyone with a paper cut will attest to, the smallest cuts feel annoyingly and disproportionately painful to what we believe it should be.  This is because we had such a massive cluster of sensitive nerve endings at the tips of our fingers. It got me to think about our emotions and how hurts make us need to withdraw and cover up.

I had to cover up that cut yesterday. I could not afford to get an infection which would render the finger useless while I tried to heal.  A good clean, an antibacterial ointment and a plaster facilitated the healing of a finger that was already throbbing and showing the red tell tail signs of the threat of infection.

But today that plaster was a hindrance. With every tap of the keys my senses moved from the images I was trying to describe into the offending tiny blanket against the words.  And I realised that while as human beings while we need to protect ourselves, there comes a time when cocooning our pain transform us from healing beings into victims. Now I could leave that plaster on and let it get all tatty and soggy.  It would serve as a beacon to all those who are interested, and they would ask, “What happened to your finger?” and I could tell them of my adventures and trials during quarantine.  But besides producing a feeling that someone cares, it would do little to benefit my future or the readers who trust me to carry them to worlds where their imagination comes alive.

Before you think I am callused, I must put a disclaimer here, I have experienced my own set of gripping trials that would make many people throw up their hands in despair. I cannot write the things I do without the heart rendering honesty of someone who had lived through fear and doubt.

But I also know that even though my finger is now sensitive at each strike of the keyboard, I am more engaged and in a place of purpose when it is off, and I can be all that God created me to be.

My parting words to you are, if you have a hurt to heal, take care of yourself, but know that there is a time to pull off that plaster and step tentatively back into the world of pains, love, betrayal, loyalty and ultimately triumph in all your scarred and beautiful glory.

Kim Vermaak is an author, marketer and legacy builder.

She is the author of the Book Series The Chronicles of Nadine. Her book The Last of the Silver Wings is available on Amazon.

www.kimvermaak.com