Snow Days, COVID, and a Whole Lot of Reading

Life

On Wednesday, January 10 at 10:30pm, I coughed then sneezed. “Weird,” I thought to myself, “I must have forgotten to take my allergy pill.”

But I didn’t.

That’s when I got the sneaky suspicion that I was sick. Upon further reflection, the cough and sneeze weren’t my typical acid reflux related cough or my seasonal allergy sneeze, so I figured something must have been up.

When I woke up the next morning, I knew something was wrong. Though I didn’t feel especially bad, I knew I was off. I resolved to take the kiddos to daycare, swap out my books at the office (I had just finished Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain), and head to the doctor’s office.

Armed with a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays, I sat down in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, filled out the required paperwork, and prayed that I wouldn’t have to wait long.

Surprisingly, the wait was shorter than usual, and I noticed that I seemed to skip ahead of others who got there before me. The triage nurse must have seen something in my eyes.

My blood pressure came out to 109/70, which is unusually low for me and a sign of what was to come.

When the nurse practitioner came in, he took a quick glance at my throat and ears, listened to my heart and lungs, and ordered a swab—thankfully not one of the brain pokers.

After a steroid shot and some antibiotics, they sent me on my way.

Well, they tried to at least.

After the vaccines I could barely use my left leg, but I recovered quickly enough and limped out of the building.

Before long I received the test results—COVID positive. I contacted my co-laborer LeAnne to let her know I’d be out, called my worship leader Jason, and got in touch with a few others who would need to know I would miss Sunday.

After realizing I had no backup for preaching that day, I recorded a short video sermon to be played on Sunday, compiled some quick Bible class notes for my substitute, and took care of some other duties while I still could.

Over the next 72 hours, I only struggled with one or two minor fevers and the mild awareness that I wasn't breathing as efficiently, but that could have been in my head. My worst symptoms by far were light headedness, dizziness, and tingling in my legs. This, along with the low blood pressure, are apparently connected to COVID, at least according to some others on social media and a few websites.

I was also insatiably hungry.

I don’t know what it was, but I could not get enough to eat.

Instead of losing my taste and smell and having no appetite, I felt like a bottomless pit: cliff bars, bowls of cereal, turkey sandwiches, bagels, pasta, leftovers, and on and on.

While I tried my best to stay quarantined from the rest of my family, Ellie Shay started having fevers Sunday morning, and Laura felt bad starting around Sunday night or Monday morning. She tested positive around lunch on Monday.

With my quarantine being over, I emerged just in time for a whole week of snow days.

While it could be called ice days instead of snow days, we spent the better part of the last five days staying warm inside, enjoying the time together, and, of course, playing in the ice and snow.

While I would have preferred to been well for most of this time, I think this was the winter break we never got. Christmas break for us was more busy than restful. With the days we spent traveling to visit family, Christmas shop, and just be caught up in the rush of the holidays, this last week was actually a good break.

So I purposefully stepped away from my usual writing habits, but now that the week is coming to an end and the demands of my job are pressing in, it’s time to reignite those fires.

But I did get a lot of reading done this week during my downtime.

As I mentioned already, I finished up Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain, and I look forward to reading Seeds of Contemplation and some of his other works. Mountain is a great work about the meaning of success, true happiness, and knowledge of God. Merton masterfully retells his own story while interweaving lessons on spirituality and what really matters in life.

I’ve also been reading The Spiritual Emerson an essay at a time. Emerson’s works emphasize the potential of the individual and call the reader to authenticity.

I took my time locked in my home office to read Beth Moore’s memoir All My Knotted-Up Life. This is the first book I’ve ever read of Moore, but from what LeAnne has told me, she has excellent material, and I can see why. Moore’s story of abuse, faith, study, growth, and loss is one that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. I couldn’t put it down, and I am really glad I bought two copies of her memoir.

Two other books I’ve been slowly digesting are Braiding Sweetgrass By Robin Wall Kimmerer and What Do We Know by Mary Oliver.

Sweetgrass is a collection of anecdotes and observations about nature, indigenous wisdom, biology, ecology, history, and Native American spirituality. I’ve enjoyed reading/ listening this book at a slow pace over the last few months. There are golden nuggets in every chapter.

What Do We Know is a collection of poems by Mary Oliver. This is the first time I’ve read straight through one of Oliver’s collections. I enjoy the simple, straightforward observations. Witnessing her awareness of the wilderness enhances my own awareness and appreciation for the wilderness without and within.

As you can kind of tell from this list, my reading goal this year is to read across four or five major genres at a time: autobiography, theology/ educational/ non-fiction, novel, and poetry.

I plan on reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, James William McClendon Jr., St. Francis of Assisi, Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, and some from great works of western literature as well as the early church writers.

Thanks for tuning into these posts; I’ll be back to my usual schedule next week!