My Muse Stuck in the Crossfire

When life goes haywire

Sparkle City

Jun 30, 2025

My muse is hiding beneath a pile of papers, looking out from beneath them. — Image created by author, Brenda Arledge, using Microsoft Bing

My Muse Stuck in the Crossfire

I need an assistant
To handle all things to do with life
So I can sit back
and write, write, write.

Lately, it’s been one thing after the other
My muse doesn’t stand a chance
Between all the phone calls and texts.

Have you ever had those moments when everything goes haywire? Nothing works out the way you had planned.

One tiny hiccup tosses your whole strategy out the window. I’ve had more than a few of those moments myself.

Lately, they’ve all seemed to pile on at once, blurring together into one long, chaotic blur… hitting all at once.

It seeps into your day-to-day life in ways you don’t expect. You see yourself changing into a modern-day version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in my case… the female edition.

Sleep goes missing. Stress shows up unannounced. And suddenly, even the simplest things feel like an uphill climb.

I catch myself yelling into my phone, and think — where did that even come from?
Do they believe I’m that naïve? Do they think I will just cave and give in to their games?

No one is interested in helping me. There is no compassion. They only want to save that bottom dollar, and they don’t care about what is right or wrong or if I might be injured.

And then there are the constant phone calls — from the vultures circling. Everyone wants to profit from my misfortune.
My car accident has become public knowledge. Suddenly, everyone and their brother know about it.

They all want a piece of the action.

They pretend to care, offering to send me to the “nearest doctor” right away. But it’s not about my recovery. It’s about their payday.
I hear it in their tone — the urgency isn’t for my well-being. It’s for their cut.

And then there’s the mess with my health records — false information, the kind that could do real damage.
Instead of fixing it, everyone’s too busy pointing fingers and playing the blame game.

It’s a nightmare. Quite honestly, I’m tired of dealing with it. It is exhausting.

My family doctor did finally write a letter, which addressed a few of the worst mistakes like the malignant brain tumor and a feeding tube, but claims these mistakes began back in 2013 and that she cannot physically change them.

I ponder the idea of hiring a lawyer, but I want life to return to normal before long.