Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: What can this adversity show me?

The adversity nearest at hand has, of course, been navigating through a pandemic. What it’s revealed is the following:

1. Knowledge is kindness. The more you know about how the virus works and spreads, the better you are able to treat your fellow human beings navigating through these same waters–in different boats–with kindness, empathy, and respect.
2. Focus on the day that’s in front of you. Not on the day you could have had had we not had a pandemic, not on some future state that could be days, weeks, or months ahead (although a little dreaming is fine, so long as it’s kept in perspective).
3. Find a way to find joy and fulfillment given current reality. That includes being aware of my own mental state; sometimes that joy is going to be much more passive than active, and that’s OK.

*****

Day two, post dose 2: Slept really well. Woke up feeling more or less normal. The left arm is still a little sore, and I had a slight sinus headache, which isn’t all that unusual for me. Overall, I think my reactions to dose 1 and dose 2 were similar in length and magnitude, even if the reactions themselves were different: Enough to feel like I was experiencing a response, not enough to really feel sick.

There was a Starsky’s run (Dave was also feeling pretty much normal) so some pierogies for lunch and some poppyseed cake for general enjoyment. Dialed into a checkpoint call for work and we briefly thought we had a showstopper issue, but it was resolved within an hour and all things are good to go for tomorrow’s go-live. First RPG went well. Then a Rising Waters baronial meeting, and then into Pathfinder, which was experiencing some technical difficulties–but at least I was rolling well tonight, and it was back to actual enjoyment (especially after I got the killing shot in on a building that had attacked me.)

Throughout all of this (and yesterday as well) I was working on my embroidery. I have now gotten it down to the final portion (the piano). I’ll be working on it a bit more tonight, then probably finishing tomorrow. When I pulled it off the hoop for the photo, I was struck as to how substantial it feels. It is nearly 8″ x 10″ and will be completely covered with stitching.

Nearing the end of this one means that I start the process of prep for the next project (which will be much smaller–it’s the beaded rendition of part of a mosaic from Pripyat.) It also times out well for what I want to do during my upcoming five-day weekend, which is to assemble at least one of my 1930s suit ensembles using the new pattern I purchased. I will also definitely be doing a smaller piece for the next Shostakovich project, because this one’s taken nearly a month.

This has been such a better weekend than last weekend. At this time just seven days ago I was dreading the vax hunt; today, I’ve got my second dose and (hopefully) made it past the side effects. SCA discussions are starting to turn to a future where we might be able to meet again, including Peerage order meetings being set (and oh boy, does it look like we’ll have catching up to do!) and archery. It’s now been more than two weeks since we moved to the first step of reopening without a spike in cases (we’re hovering around the 300 or so case range, although Waterloo is an issue). We have places like the Shaw Festival announcing programming. We have Toronto doing a massive vaccination clinic today.

Progress. We’re still not quite there. But there’s a huge sense of momentum right now. This feels like it might be doable ahead of schedule.