Enough said about Covid for now—back to traveling through time via books—my favorite escape vehicle, carrying me ever more deeply into fantasyland or into historical documentation, as determined by which better serves my mindset of the moment.
“… the wilderness of books, in which she could wander, where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.”
— LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, Little Women”
The same could be said of me.
Though tis true that much of what I’ve learned, over the years, has been absorbed from books, I’ve come to understand why personal experiences, especially those that came out of the blue, will continue to reshape my traits (for better or worse) throughout my life. (Better if my self-awareness deepens. Worse if I remain blind to personal vulnerabilities.)
People ask: What keeps you busy, throughout each day of quarantine? My reply: I befriend the characters in every book I read. I bask in the love emoted from within emails and texts that continue to come in from all over the country. Now that surgery is more than a month past and we have been all boostered up, Will and I will begin to enjoy friends and family, again, as masked guests, during the day. And evenings, we’ll continue to cozy up on the couch while binging on one tv series or another.
Oftentimes, Will or I verbally acknowledge our good fortune to ‘have and to hold’ each other no matter how long my need to quarantine in safety persists. And choosing one’s attitude, during difficult times (which seem endless) is more than helpful when spirits are in need of a boost.
Though there’s much I want to do to straighten up certain rooms in the house, which have somehow cluttered up while I’ve been abed, little gets done, because my low energy level and to-do list do not yet match, so though my day is quiet (unless Steven and Ravi are knocking on our Arcadia door to announce their arrival), I’ve come to crave the sense of peace I feel whenever need to rest (which is often) beckons me back to bed with at least one book for company, sometimes two.
In addition to penning, editing and posting my blog, there’s my weekly Shakespeare class, via Zoom, which sees me studying the brilliant writings of The Bard during the days preceding each stimulating Friday morning class, which offers up lively discussions that I enjoy participating in, immensely … so as you can see, my choice to enjoy a quiet life, sheltered ‘neath an attitude of ‘one day at a time’, does not equate with the tediousness of looking ahead to boring days as long as my processor freely luxuriates within the realm of reading the minds of my favorite authors or authoring mindful trains of thought, all my own …
As to Will, whenever I think to ask—is our prolonged quarantine beginning to drive you crazy? My husband’s answer is the same: As long as you’re beside me, I’m happy to be where I am. As to where Will (who is also an avid reader) can be seen, mornings—he and the newspaper’s daily crossword puzzle are at our kitchen table, and nearby is found the briefcase in which all of my medical records are meticulously stored so as to make certain that with several doctors in two states, nothing of importance slips through the cracks concerning my recovery of good health. And then, every afternoon sees Will happily ensconced in front of our TV, totally immersed in westerns he’d enjoyed as a kid—escapism proving to be a highly personal thing.
🙋🏻♀️🔆🌻 Annie
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