Diary of an American

Very odd week. After managing to dodge the bullet the last two years I finally got laid out by COVID-19 at my summer job. I thought I had a cold, seemed to get better after taking a day and a half off of work, WENT BACK to work (I feel terrible about this), all the while not having a fever, no headaches, no cough, just loss of taste and smell. I have guilt thinking perhaps in my ignorance I’ve made someone else ill. So here I am having been forced to come to a stop for a while not leaving the house for the next week. The first thing I did was shut off the bloody news which is not designed to heal anybody.

I’ve been sleeping a lot and reading a lot. Read this lovely little book called The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

It’s about a talented embroiderer named Cat, from Penzance England who gets kidnapped by pirates in 1625 along with members of her church and taken to Morocco, but keeps a diary of her experience in an embroidery book. In the present time a woman named Julia who is having an affair with her best friend’s husband receives an antique calfskin covered book on embroidery as a “dumping gift” by the cad she has been seeing in the mistaken belief that he loves her (he loves himself more). The way the two timelines run parallel and converge is really quite complex and masterful work by the author. The author also managed to show how a different culture which we may perceive as “savage” is actually more humane than ours. Totally recommend the book. ❤️

I have also been taking the time of getting more in touch with my spirituality which had been getting ignored or even seemed blase. I believe everything happens for a reason and it is good that I am forced to stop for a little while and immerse myself in Otherworldly matters.

I suppose I should try to sleep some more. I’ll be back tomorrow. This illness makes you soooo tired. But I am grateful for my home and family and friends who check up on me, and grateful for this time alone to take measure of my life.