On The Other Side Of It
What a great day it was to finally get back with family after a long road to recovery from Covid/Omicron.
Terry and I felt the cold symptoms arrive on New Year’s Eve and hoped they were just that : cold symptoms.
But it was not meant to be and although we tested negative early on , I don’t think the rapid tests catch your real status until a few days in.
So, because we were getting worse, we took another rapid test which confirmed the bad news.
It was a pretty rough two weeks but we are both so happy that we were triple vaxxed because we could only imagine how much worse it would have been if not.
The toughest part for me was absolutely NO energy. I think the toughest part for Terry was that and he had a daily congestion headache too.
I still cannot wrap my head around the many folks out there that think the pandemic isn’t real. I now know so many people who have died from their ‘variant’ or folks who have either fully recovered or have ‘long covid’ . It’s no joke.
Anyway…..
my sister, Paula (and husband, Albert) had taken rapid tests to confirm they are Covid free so I headed over to their home the other day to just ‘hang out’ , chat, and of course play her new Tile Rummy game. Not that I ever did….but I will NEVER take family and friends for granted. SUCH a gift to be together. To hug. To be in the same room.
A few days later we finally finally had a chance to have our “Christmas” together. We all knew that real Christmas evening would be too busy with activity and little ones to exchange our gifts so we made (and cancelled and rescheduled) a few dates to get together post holidays to do this.
Paula made a wonderful supper of something called “Fajita Bombs”. This is a less messy way of eating fajitas as they are fully wrapped and then cooked in the oven for a bit. Yum! We enjoyed this with sweet potato fries and a delicious, light cake covered in fresh strawberries. All so good and the conversation even better!
Albert has to be so careful at his work as he is a teacher and a chaplain so with this highly transmissible Omicron he will always be tested. We wanted to come over because of their recent clear test results. Sheesh.
Paula and Albert have a beautiful home. We always feel so cozy when we enter in and although we didn’t play music this visit , it is very inspiring to see all the instruments (guitars, piano, keyboard, etc.) at the ready .
After dinner it was time for our fun Christmas gift exchange.
I don’t know if we’ll all manage to stay healthy until we see each other again. We aren’t going anywhere indoors (other than our own home) for awhile to try and be safe.
It’s a scary illness and not fun. This could be the way of the future though….for always. So I want to learn to embrace my sufferings instead of crying or complaining about them. I want to use them as an offering up for others and I hope to learn how to pray. To pray not for an ‘easy’ life but for the courage to become a stronger person.
May your families remain safe and may your spirits remain UP!
Peace, friends.
I know that life will always have its challenges. And I tend to pray that God will take away my suffering. But I am trying to relearn my way of thinking. I’m trying to pray that I will learn from my sufferings. I want to remember to offer them up for other people. And I want to pray to be a stronger person no matter what life throws at me. We’re not alone and we’re not the only ones to have suffered. How can we embrace these experiences and come out the other side of things as better people?