Peace. I know. Who thinks of COVID as peaceful? But 2020 gave us a moment of peace. Many embraced this time as a time to grow, introspect. Many learned new skills or strengthened their talents. It all fit into my favorite part of the movie, Groundhog’s Day. What if we were given time to get better? Time to embrace our passions? We had that time and many of us were surprised at what we could do.

The thing is, I’d been thinking that way since ‘fibromyalgia’ took over my life. That’s what the doctor labeled the pain I went through. The pain left no energy and was all inclusive of my life. Yet at times it would disappear. That diagnosis was over 15 years ago.

But it was during that COVID year that I needed a tooth removed. The dentist gave me a round of antibiotics before he’d do the extraction.

On extraction day, I accidentally broke my baby toe. So immediately after having the tooth pulled, I went to Urgent Care. My mask was full of blood. I looked like a sated vampire.

That doctor looked me over. Yep, the toe was broken but outside of a crazy boot, there wasn’t much more to do. But with my temp he decided to put me on another round of antibiotics.

A weird thing happened. Even though my toe hurt, I didn’t hurt all over like I would have before that second round. Any hurt used to became body wide. Like every nerve was feeling the same pain as the stubbed toe. But suddenly the ‘fibro’ had disappeared. I don’t think it was ever that. But maybe a low grade infection had been in me for YEARS maybe decades.

So now I wasn’t working. I was living in a fear that the pain would return. But it didn’t. I was free to pursue my passions and curiosities. All languages, knitting, crocheting, loom-knitting, diamond painting, etc. etc. I was given Groundhog’s Day and pain relief.

That’s why I keep track of all my fun. The bits and pieces of my peace.

In lieu of Finishing Friday I offer this stream:

Haven’t done much in these. I need about two inches before the heel starts.
About the same for my watermelon socks.
See that wad of yarn vomit? Yeah. That’s how much I had to tink back. I was well into the heel when I noticed a big mistake. Hopefully, I can get back the lost bits soon. Once I start the heel, I pretty much stay with the one pair. See, once the heel is done, there’s only a couple inches of ankle bits. Then I finish each sock on it’s own set of needles. It makes the castoff easier that way.
I don’t know if I shared but this ponytail holder finished with the beginning of my case of COVID. These little projects were about all the productivity I got done during the fever parts.
My latest ponytail holder.

Somehow I managed to keep at least one lesson a day in Duolingo. And I cheated here on the blog with the slightest post of a funny daily here.

Music and diamond painting had to stop until I started having energy again. I think that was about Wednesday.

Just a piece of sky left to do.

Piano and ukulele started then but I just picked up the violin yesterday. I just barely played Twinkle and that was enough.

Same with the stationary bike. Wednesday I did 12 minutes or around a mile. By Friday I got up to 15 minutes or 2 and a half miles. So energy is returning slowly.

With health I can regain my passions piece by piece. And that gives me peace.