I got covid; I isolated, sanitised, masked up, got the first jab and got covid. I knew it from when it woke me up at 1 in the morning with a headache (which I never get) and a pain in my hips which although reoccurring I have managed and not felt for years and a slight sniffle. By the time I woke up the headache was big, the pain bigger and I couldn’t smell anything. I didn’t need a test, I had been told to hide from this for 18 months and now it was in my system, my whole body felt it and I recognised it instantly.
I was blessed in that the symptoms stayed on the mild side and mostly out of my chest. We had 6 days of an ill, tired me, but gorgeous sunshine and the family together which we are lucky enough to love. Then we started working from home, the kids did their thing and on day 11 we enjoyed our freedom, for the first hour anyway as for the rest of the day I had a huge headache so went to bed at 8:30. The same the next day then when I had to start working again properly my brain was fuzzy, I’m distracted, tired and still have a damn headache. Day 15 now and this is not on. You are told to rest when ill, let your body rest and recover. Yes, a period of rest is needed, not just needed but vital when you’re in the eye of the storm but you need force for the storm to blow over.
Earlier in the summer I did a little experiment in the garden. The summer took so long to arrive all of my seedlings were undercover and running out of space so I planted 1 sweetcorn out convinced I was sending it to its doom. The slugs had eaten everything else, it was cold and wet and indeed the slugs ate the outside leaves and it started to blow over but then… Then the summer arrived so I surrounded the stumpy leaning sweetcorn with its sprightly intact tray mates and, it thrived. It sucked in the sunshine and the additional nutrients it had enjoyed for longer and grew taller, straighter and greener than all the rest.
There is certainly a time for rest but that time is short, only when necessary. Sheltering may protect you from harm but it will not strengthen you, if prolonged it will restrict you and weaken you. So I looked at my ever so strong sweetcorn and took my never ending headache, exhausted legs and fuzzy brain and ran. I ran out of my house and down the road in the sunshine. I could literally feel each part of my body wake up. My legs were stiff my brain still pounding but things were moving and I didn’t just like it, I craved more. So I continued up the hill around the corner along more roads and as my pace and breathing levelled out my headache went. I smiled as my strength returned and I literally worked the last of the illness out of any hiding places it may have sought in my body. There is a perfect part of a run where you can decide whether to walk or not; everything hurts, your breathing is laboured and your survival instinct kicks in, ‘just walk a bit’ your legs say. But strength does not come from resting. Freedom is not often found in the easy road. So you keep running and you find a new rhythm a new pace that you never ever knew you had and you grow a little stronger, a little wiser, a little free-er.
Rewilding my family 