Morning of Wonders

Nor love, nor honour, wealth, nor power,
Can give the heart a cheerful hour
When health is lost. Be timely wise;
With health all taste of pleasure flies.
~ John Gay


The complexion of my life has changed greatly over the past several years. While I can say I am now healed from CFS, it is still a life which veers from health to sickness and back again while my immune system tries to pick itself up. It's a long road. There's no point in rushing it.

The last sickness has just been a cold, a standard cold, one which lasted several weeks. No biggie, but my tolerance for even the most basic of sicknesses is so low that any kind of ill health steals my delight these days. Still, there are things to be learnt in even a small thing such as a cold.

This morning, the April light is gentle. It's laying the back of its hand softly against all the surfaces it touches, the wood of my house and the pergola, the sleek darkness of Lester's fur. Everything, this morning, seems priceless to me. The most basic of things. The cold has retreated and the joy has returned. The joy of a small, everyday morning of cooking and eating oatmeal, swimming in the gravelly honey of Ray LaMontagne's voice and music, admiring the basic greenness of the grass, blue of sky. It's all so beautiful, so simple, so infused with the loveliness and pleasure and anticipation of a life that God inhabits.

Sickness always takes me out of myself, steals my joy, spirals my anxiety. Such an evil thing. But would I appreciate everything so much this morning without having lost my health for so long? I don't think so.

Today I am venturing out to Hanging Rock, scene of novel and movie about disastrous girly picnics. But I don't anticipate such drasticnesses to happen today. Today I get to hang out with some rocks and some trees and replant myself into the earth, my feet into the ground.

Happy Saturday, bloggers :)