Time warps and love heals

I remembered early one morning it was the day for rescue dog, Tara (also known as Cinnamon), to be taken for her veterinary appointment. So, I made a quick call to the woman in Trinidad who is fostering her. This particular dog has been receiving treatment every Tuesday for TVT (transmissible venereal tumours).

“Oh, her final treatment went well yesterday!” the foster informed me over the phone.

“Yesterday?” I thought, confused – as "yesterday" was Tuesday, a public holiday, and the foster and I had discussed a few days before that Tara’s Tuesday appointment would therefore have to be (and subsequently was) rescheduled for Wednesday.

“Isn’t today Wednesday?” I asked.

“No, it’s Thursday.”

As I scramble to write this article it is 11.21 am on Thursday and my submission deadline is midday. Prior to the above-mentioned phone call which set my calendar straight, I had been lying on the couch, relaxing and pondering possible article topics on this glorious, sunny but breezy (what I thought was) Wednesday.

Time is an illusion. It seems to go faster than it used to. The fact that we are now in August is unbelievable, as January seems to have been "yesterday". Christmas is around the corner. The new year, 2024, seems a breath away.

Time warps further when you are not feeling "yourself" – hence (in addition to the public holiday) the illusion of Thursday being Wednesday for me. Over the past few days, the couch and the bed were two of my best friends, as I slept – day and night – more than usual, thanks to a sudden virus that hit me out of the blue with unfamiliar, all-over body pains and ongoing, never-before-felt fatigue. (Not covid).

I felt that instead of a body, I was painfully lugging around a sack of concrete, most of which was concentrated in my hard-to-keep-open eyelids. While thankfully not totally incapacitated by these symptoms, my greatest solace was to flop onto a soft surface and sink into deep sleep.

Rather than see that state as debilitating or disrupting of "life", I saw it as Nature’s way of commanding me to stop, drop "everything", take a clearly much-needed rest and moment of deeper inner reflection. It also inspired me to top up on vitamins, eat better and drink lots of liquids (mainly coconut water and herbal tea) to "flush out."

The body-aches, stiffness and fatigue were my only symptoms. This virus (or something like it) had "hit" a few people I know with other symptoms which, thankfully, I did not have – fever and, for two, so much vomiting that they ended up in hospital on drips due to resulting dehydration.

As someone who does not usually "get sick", when I do, it is an alien feeling. At the same time, it increases my sense of empathy to realise that as horrible as I feel, it is thankfully temporary, and that there are people who feel what I may be experiencing, and worse, on an ongoing, chronic level.

At times like that, I become very aware of what makes me feel better – and consider that it will possibly also uplift others. Beyond "medicine," it is often the simple, things – someone calling or texting to ask "How are you feeling today?"... "Is there anything I can get for you?" Someone unexpectedly popping by to bring something good to eat and, no matter how old we get, something as simple as Mummy calling to offer remedial recommendations.

Love heals, as the saying goes.

Why wait until people are "feeling sick" to do these things? Perhaps we humans have become "too busy" to remember that simple things which help us feel better when we are not feeling our best, are the things that can help us and others stay well on an everyday basis.

Love boosts our immunity and uplifts our spirits, making it easier to recover and live fully.

During the height of covid times, I felt like going to the hospital and playing my Native American love flute for hospital patients. The flute is very relaxing and, I believe, healing.

However, I did not follow up on that inspiration because of restrictions at the time, in addition to which it is impossible to play the flute while wearing a mask.

Now that I have recovered from the recent viral offset, I am reminded of that call to action and will see ways in which it is possible to follow up.