Covid: A body reset?
I am back a week and a day ( –it is well over a month by the time I hit publish as it turns out) from walking 700+ miles (1150 km) from Lausanne, Switzerland, along the shores of beautiful Lac Leman through the Alps and across the border at Grand St. Bernard Pass down into the scenic Aosta Valley of Italy. From there south through the rice fields of the Po Valley and grapevines and hazelnut groves, through the Piedmont region and the fall fallowed fields of Tuscany into Lazio where eventually I walked into St. Peter’s Square on October 27th, 2023, and into the eternal city of Rome. 60 days on the path. 5 days off to rest and explore. You can read about my Pilgrimage or click the link above, follow my Camino.
All the while COVID waited in the wings.
The ART of rest –hmmmm? When people tell me “to rest” –what does that look like: do nothing, sit in a chair, can I read a book? does it mean taking a nap, taking a bath, or staying in bed all day? Should I get dressed? Can I chat on the phone, work from home, cook, or run to the store (only if masked and only after isolating for 5 days from the start of symptoms –per the CDC –)? BUT I don’t feel sick. No fever. My energy level is okay –especially considering jet lag. I only have a cold. A cold. Yet the results from my home government-sponsored antigen test show I am positive with COVID. A covid COLD. Okay. Home from work. A temporary gig I committed to happily, before I left, knowing I would have income when I returned (after a 2-month hiatus), and now I sit at my kitchen table contemplating the art of rest and how to be productive without overdo. I might be getting used to it.
The body reset. No wine. No walking. No one knocking at my door. Nowhere to be. Sigh.