My wrists made the decision and I rebuilt around it

My wrists made a decision about two years ago and did not consult me first. There are things I did every week for a decade and have not done since, and rather than argue with any of it I sat down one evening and rebuilt what I do around what is still available to me.

Forty seven, out west, eighteen years. The rebuilding took the better part of a year and was more interesting than I expected. What is left is narrower and slower and I am fonder of it than I ever was of the wide version. That is my own account of my own practice and none of it is a recommendation to anybody else.

The awkward part has been social. People who knew me before keep offering the old thing, each offer needs a no, and after enough of them you start to sound difficult. I have got better at saying it once, clearly, at the start, which is a fair part of what this post is for.

I switch, and both directions have changed. What I want is a partnership over years with somebody who takes a stated limit as a plain fact rather than as an opening position in a negotiation.

I am not fragile, I am not retiring, and I am not interested in a conversation about whether it might improve. It is what it is and I have made something good out of it.