We often take our homes for granted. But when we steep ourselves in our home, a deep sense of place begins to emerge. Life becomes more meaningful. We begin to have a greater spiritual awareness of what our home is and should be. Perhaps our most inspiring though is that our homes, if we are to live well in them, require and deserve a lifetime of the most careful attention. A home absorbs caretaking like a sponge. All the hours we spend tending to it are never in vain, for everything we give to our home, is in turn, given back to us. Our homes will be only as generous and nurturing as the effort we invest in them."
- from Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping
BY MIRIAM LUKKEN
Good Monday to you, my friends! I wanted to pop in for just a few minutes to let you know, that yes, I'm still very much alive and well, or perhaps, feeling better every day. The past year has been rather challenging. I've had a couple of bouts of sciatic nerve pain, and then in mid-March I came down with what the doctor's originally diagnosed as an upper respiratory infection but actually turned out to be Covid. It's my first round with this nasty virus, and I have to say that while I'm thankful it's morphed into something much less threatening, I've never had anything side line me quite like this has. I'm still dealing with some lingering symptoms, clogged ears, vertigo and off and on days of weakness. My doctor says it's too early to tell, but what I may actually have is what they refer to as "long Covid". Lucky me!
In that, I'm weeks behind on just about everything, gardening, house-cleaning, and posting here! We're focusing on the yard and getting the garden in this week, and last week I finally felt up to actually cleaning house, which felt so good. As I was cleaning, I started a list of projects that I plan to complete over the summer, so I'm hoping my improvements in health will continue so that I can actually check at least a few of those off the list. As the quote above states, I’m ready to “invest some effort”, it beeds cleaning in the places where no one else would think to look. :)
About the only thing I have felt like doing for the past six weeks is reading! I have finished the first three Betsy Tacy books, and I have a post for the second one about in my drafts. In the early days of battling this illness, I had a bit of brain fog, and problems with focusing, which has made it nearly impossible to be on my computer or watch television. The lights, the dialouge and all the moving images have proven to be too much, It must be related to the vertigo? Thankfully, however, it hasn't stopped me from reading, although when it comes to putting my thoughts together and writing, that is proving a bit more challenging! So, if you're reading the Betsy Tacy books along with me, my apologies for being so far behind! I hope to get those posts up soon, so be watching for them!
And with that I think I'll close for now. I've missed visiting with you in this space, and hope that I'll feel up to posting again regularly. As I said, there are still days when it is challenging, especially if the vertigo is bad, but all in all, I think we're on the mend!
❊