I find myself both mentally and physically drained. I feel the main culprit is the hip surgery because of the stress I was under and in some ways still there. It has been a long road from finding what the cause of severe pain, to the actual diagnosis that my hip needed replacing.

Another factor that is adding to the above factors is that I am weaning off opioid painkillers. For the past week I have my circadian rhythm thrown off. I am not having deep sleep and the sleep I do get is minimum, so I am exhausted during the day and barely functioning.

This leads to the reason of this post. I am going to take a time out from blogging over the summer, but will check in from time to time to catch up on some reading. During this time I will be gathering my notes and relevant posts to start work on a book that I have wanted to write since leaving active ministry.

Also, I am going to recharge by taking in some necessary reading of three new books I have. One is ” Making Sense of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Understanding the DSM-5 by Ashley L Peterson. Another is a book that was reviewed by Ashley L. Peterson on her blog www.Mentalhealth@home.org, “Blackness Interrupted: Black Psychology Matters” by Nicól Osborne and Tamera Gittens. Then last on the list is a new book written by CNN Prime Time Host, Don Lemon, “This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism “.

So dear reader, this exhausted and drained blogger will be back near the end of August. I hope you will be there when I return!