My 100-Day Project Week 10
- As part of our house-cleaning process, I was taking stock of all the plants we have in the house. Some are really flourishing while others are struggling. Many need to be re-potted because of lack of nutrients, are root bound, or overgrown. Plants need the right soils, light, temperatures to grow properly. People need the right conditions too: healthy food, exercise, mental health. Often as we get older, we forget to take care of ourselves, give ourselves the right conditions to flourish. This is especially true when we are in the thick of careers and family obligations. But taking care our ourselves must come first or we can’t take care of anyone else. I am only now taking care of my mental health, my mind, after so many years on autopilot.
2. I had a good call with an acquaintance who does house and pet sitting (she sat for us once) and she is a writer. I learned that she does ghost writing, helps people write and publish books, and helps writers structure books. She is talented, and I believe that we will work together, probably on my Okra project. Small encounters like a house sit can lead to interesting connections and relationships.
3. I had second shot yesterday and everything was fine for about 12 hours, then the symptoms started: full body chills, full body aches, no fever, very slight nausea, but the worst part was that I couldn’t sleep. My body was uncomfortable and wouldn’t rest. I was up most of the night. My arm that had the injection was so sore, worse than the first vaccine. I am not alone in this and I know its temporary, but I did cancel a few morning calls so I could rest. If you haven’t had your second shot yet, keep this in mind.
4. It took a day to get over the vaccine and my arm is still sore this morning and the area around where I got the shot is still red. At least I know the vaccine is there. I hardly felt it when she injected me. I am just relieved to have gotten it and I hope more people will. Who knows what the long-term ramifications will be for the pandemic but it has changed so much about the way we have lived our lives. We know now for sure that we can’t predict the future. We don’t know what is to come. If that is all we understand, that alone is valuable to know. You don’t know what is to come so make the most of every day.
5. Yesterday, I received this email at 9:02 am “Congrats, your rental car for Thursday, April 8, 2021 is confirmed!” At 1:50 pm, I received a text that said, “Unfortunately we are currently sold out and have no vehicles available.” We had this car booked for my 65th birthday celebration so this was not a small issue and I was not happy. But a dear friend reminded me that I had to let it go and he was right. Holding onto anything just increases stress and anxiety which I felt so strongly. Releasing the anger and frustration allowed me to think and find alternative solutions. We didn’t find an optimal solution, but we did find a solution. There will be necessary follow-up on this issue but for now, I can at least head out for my birthday adventure.
6. I could continue to say a lot about COVID travel — we hit more bumps, a room got cancelled — but no use in crying over spilled milk as they used to say. Tybee Island was quite packed yesterday. Trash all over the beach, lots of loitering in the ‘no loitering’ zone, lots of littering in the ‘no littering’ zone and the like. Seems it was the tail end of spring break and we didn’t realize that when we decided to come here. This morning in quiet though and we had a nice two-mile walk. Seems the spring breakers are heading out. In a couple of weeks we’ll see what the COVID stats are.
7. Don’t know what the history of coffee is but I’m sure happy someone figured out it would be a good idea to boil these ‘seeds.’ A good cup of coffee in the morning is a pleasure. We took ours out to the beach and watched the sunrise. A bit hazy, low lying clouds left from the passing storm. Much cooler today, about 62 degrees. Not exactly the weather I was hoping for but this entire vacation has been a test of patience and letting go. I haven’t been too successful on the letting go part and when I return home, I’ll be writing a few letters. For now, I’ll try to put all that aside and enjoy being here with my husband and our good friend. Cheers!
