Just when you think you’ve got things all on schedule, a rogue wave blindsides you. You know?

My husband and I had long ago planned a wintertime excursion to the wilds of Costa Rica this winter. I had just met with my editor back in February and took her advice on which essays from my blog I should to carve out or build from to make my book better. “This is great, I thought. I’ll use the times during the heat of the day in the jungle to write and edit.” I have been to Costa Rica several times before and knew that in the rainforest heat in the middle of the day, it is wise to not do much of anything physical. Just chill.

Well, the promised “strong Wi-Fi” in our Airbnb wasn’t quite strong enough for both my husband and me to be online at the same time. And I was flummoxed for a few days on how to work on google docs offline. But the real “you’re not in Kansas anymore” challenge was trying to work at night. You see, in the rainforest, the sun sets at about 5:30 p.m., and very quickly. We were staying in a solar powered home, which was very cool (though not literally ... at all!) and it is decidedly unwise to use many lights at night, lest one drain the batteries, which indeed happened on our first night there. After a few days of fighting with the Wi-Fi, I opened my laptop in a dark, candlelit corner, trying to get some writing done, and was promptly bombarded by many varieties of flying bugs that were attracted to my laptop’s light.

“Ugh, fine,” I said to the gecko serenading me nearby as I snapped my laptop shut. I poured myself an iced down glass of white wine and listened to the beautiful Costa Rican evening. We tried to play Yahtzee by candlelight, but when we kept losing the dice in the darkness, we threw in the towel and went to bed early. This was a wise move, because the monkey and parrots start their days around 5 a.m. So, not much writing was happening.

Then, several days into our jungle paradise excursion, I got sideswiped by a rogue wave at a beautiful, deserted beach. I ended up with whiplash, a bulging disc and a pinched nerve that, by the time we arrived in Miami, Florida, pushed me into the local ER. I mean, I wasn’t even surfing … but the official story will definitely say I was, just for the record.

All that is to say that while the plan was to spend the months of February and March fine-tuning my soon-to-be-best-selling memoir, the past several weeks have been full of ice packs, heating pads, various doctors’ appointments and Biblical gnashing of teeth.

 So, I’m behind schedule ...

I remember seeing Oprah Winfrey at an event many years ago where she spoke about following your dreams, persevering through obstacles, etc. She said something like “once you decide to go for it, the universe will send you a lot of obstacles to test you, to see if you really, really want it. When then happens, keep going.”

Or, it seems, a rogue wave takes you out …

Ok, Oprah. I get it. Let’s do this.

Stay tuned!