February 02, 2022Covid Lessons

We made it two years with no problems.

Then in December, the inevitable finally happened and we got our own visit from the covid monster.

You’re reading this in February, but it was written back at the end of December. Early that month is when we got our own personal visit from the covid monster at our house. Like a bad flu on steroids, but we certainly weren’t affected in the serious ways many are. Mostly it was just dry cough, no appetite, and unquenchable thirst despite slugging gallons of water and sleeping for almost 2 solid weeks.

Luckily, it all happened during December when work slows down a bit and normal schedules are on hold.

Unluckily, it all happened during December which meant no gathering with family or friends, no traditional dinners and events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Life was cancelled. Bummer.

Then came the fourth week and that one glorious morning when I opened my eyes and the first thing I heard was some voice in the back of my head announcing, It’s OVER!

Oh, happy day … or actually, happy week … because you don’t exactly leap out of bed that first day. But progressively and slowly over the next days and week you can eat again, function again, and soon there’s clean laundry, neglected bills and emails get answered, and fresh homemade soup is bubbling away in the crock pot. Life has returned!

We got off easy. Our church’s prayer list is filled with names of people fighting this monster, some for months. In hospitals. On ventilators. There have been deaths. We got off really easy. Still it was no picnic. As I said earlier, it was like the flu on steroids.

It’s just my husband and I at our house, I’m in my late 60’s and he is in his late 70’s. Except for his allergies, neither of us has anything really wrong. Neither of us are on any meds.

So it’s rare for me to get sick. Generally it’s a cold or the flu about every 3 years or so if I have a spell where I push myself too hard and get really tired and worn out. But I can’t remember the last time I was sick – maybe 4-5 years? – so I naturally thought it was just the flu. So I went to bed to sleep it off, and stayed there for two weeks! This was not the flu! Then hubby followed about 4-5 days later. We had a really rotten December.

But it’s all over now. 2021 is gone forever, and we’ve got a fresh new year in front of us.

I love the start of a new year anyway, but 2022 is especially enticing after our lousy December, because feeling better after feeling so lousy is even better than never feeling lousy to begin with!

But no problem in life is without it’s bit of enlightenment, and no cloud is without its silver lining. And we come away from hard times appreciating life a bit more.

This month I’ll tell you about some of the lessons the covid monster taught me …