Gently, gently... recovering from Coronavirus
What's clear is when it comes to Coronavirus is how little anyone knows. But that doesn't stop us talking about it on every news channel, every news headline, every socially distanced corner. I am trying to wean myself off my current 24-hour addiction to news updates because although it's hard - especially as I've reached the angry stage - one of the things I've been realising is that my recovery isn't just about the body. It seems this virus affects the mind as well. So reading this article by Fiona Lowenstein
in the New York Times was a revelation that came at exactly the right time for me.
I was filled with a strange gratitude that it wasn't just me who couldn't 'bounce back'.Since then several of us 'survivors' have found each other and banded together, exchanging truths and experiences knowing that we will understand things that maybe others don't or would rather not hear.
Because it's not pretty.
As Nicholas Coleridge said on the Today programme, coronavirus is like a “very dirty computer virus, infiltrating every part of your system, and contaminating all your files”.
There's also an unhelpful feeling - or maybe it's just me who feels this - that I need to be a cheerleader for recovery, a walking symbol that you can go into hospital with this 'dirty virus' and come out happily the other side. And of course I have, but the truth is that everyone is extraordinary - after all we're all adapting to this weird normality, getting on with our lives as if we're not stuck in some kind of horror movie where to touch someone is to potentially kill them.
And while of course I feel lucky, what I don't know yet is what special gifts the virus might have left for me long-term.
And. Do. Not. Google. This. Trust me.
So when a good friend told me today, 'be gentle, very gentle,' the phrase kept echoing round my head. Not least because there are so many good things I've loved recently and I don't want to forget them. In fact, it feels more important than ever to enjoy them.
So here's a list of five things that have taken my mind off things and brought me pleasure recently, because, let's be honest, my one attempt at making sourdough bread didn't quite fill me with sparkles.
Hmmm…. So here are some altogether prettier things – I hope that you enjoy them too!
1. THREE BEAUTIFUL THINGS.
My friend, Clare, has gone back to writing her blog of three small good things. I read these avidly every day, and remember why my whole family call her ‘beautiful Clare.’
2. GOOD LIFE-AFFIRMING BOOKS.
I loved The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, an Australian novel set in 1960s department store, and then moved on to Kate Bradbury’s The Bumblebee Flies Anyway. This is a non-fiction account of how she turned a decked garden in Brighton into a wildlife (sort of) paradise. I think it would be impossible to read this book and not be inspired. I’m now the proud owner of a bee hotel as a result, and if you are the handy type, here she is showing how to make one.
My next book up is Polly Samson’s A Theatre for Dreamers. I have it on my Kindle, but via Twitter, I learnt that the Newham Bookshop have signed copies in stock. These videos she has done with her family (including her husband David Gilmour)are pretty special too when there aren’t book launches to be enjoyed.
3. CHOCOLATE.
Of course, of course! One of the really lovely presents I got from someone who knows me very well was this box of special chocolates made by Charlotte Flower full of seasonal foraged flavours – ladies smock, wild garlic, sea buckthorn… I’d show you the actual chocolates but I’ve eaten them all! Charlotte is still making and sending chocolates out at the moment so do have a look at her website. And when we are back to some kind of normality, perhaps we can all meet on one of her workshops?
4. ONLINE COURSES.
Oh my god, if this isn’t an example of how we all adapt then I don’t know what is. The joy of finding I can still do yoga with my beloved local teachers (turning my camera off so they don’t see me slacking off during plank pose), but there’s also the chance to try things I might not otherwise have been able to. I had the happiest two hours last Saturday doing a herb workshop with Hackney Herbal – oh, I thoroughly recommend it! I learnt so much and felt afterwards as positive as if I’d been digging bare handed in the soil. I’m also tempted by the courses on offer via the Edinburgh Botanical Garden and Oxford University – at last a chance to drop in, ‘when I was at Oxford’..!
And of course I may do none of them, but just knowing they are all out there and I COULD study electronics or botany opens up the world a little (Also, NOT doing them gives me the same thrill as skiving off school once did…)
5. GOOD PODCASTS.
I know you all listen to so many of these already, but one that’s just started and I’m LOVING is Melissa Harrison‘s The Stubborn Light of Things. It’s uplifting and beautiful, full of the kind of detail that makes you look again at ordinary life. But closer this time, and from a different angle. Also there are only three episodes so far, so there’s that strange but welcome feeling of having to wait for good things to happen. Patience. Patience. Gently. Gently.
Oh, and go on one more….
6. SEEDS.
Just look at my runner beans. They don’t know they are starting their lives in second-hand loo roll homes, and heck they don’t care. Because for them there’s a world out there and they are eager to HIT IT. Preferably with red flowers wound through their hair. See the difference in just a week… my babies are growing up fast.
