all that i didn’t do
Two months is a long time to be away from a routine. I shared back in January that I’d be away for a couple months. I stepped back from work, and this blog, and many more responsibilities during that time. Before I left, I thought I was fortunate because I knew the time off was coming. I was fortunate, in many ways, but not how I expected.
Have you ever been productive on a sick day? Or find yourself with a surprise day off from your tasks that you soon fill with different tasks? Me too! Going in, I had a few ideas in my head about how I would run my 40+ days off. I bought a bunch of books. I planned to speed-learn French and be conversant by March. I would go through the stack of papers on my desk and decide where to put them. Pretty typical stuff, I thought. I had so much planned! I got to almost none of it.
I still can’t speak French very well. I didn’t pick up any new hobbies. But none of the ideas I’d planned were why I was taking the time off. The only thing besides taking it easy that my doctor mandated was walks. Three per day, at least 10 minutes per walk. I didn’t miss a day. And I got to pet a bunch of cats! I fed the neighborhood crows until I ran out of mealworms. I took lots of pictures. We rented several movies from the video store.
The first couple weeks were not easy for me. I really struggled because I wanted to do more and couldn’t. But why was I complaining? Those days were much harder on my husband. They ran errands and did all the cooking and cleaning while still working full time. They insisted that it wasn’t a burden for them as long as I focused on the one thing I needed to do. So I walked every day. In the cold. In the rain. Once or twice in the snow (it didn’t stick). I watched a lot of TV and several movies I had been meaning to try. I did read some of the many books I bought. I checked out even more from the library, and read most of those too.
As my number of recovery days neared zero, I began to appreciate them more. When would I ever get to experience time off like this again? I was so fortunate to have the gift of time set aside for healing. For some reason I wanted to squander it on (yuck) being productive.
Now, eight weeks later, I am here. I’m grateful that I’m nearly complete on a full recovery. I’m getting back into my routine, including my fair share of the cooking and cleaning. And I’m better prepared to meet whatever comes next.
