27 Houses, Or An Exercise In Patience

And so, dear reader, I have been absent for some time, partly due to more health issues and partly because, put simply, I was tired of talking (or writing in this case). I'm sure pretty much everyone has phases when they just can't be bothered to some extent and I suspect that the way this manifests itself will depend largely on your own personality. I am naturally inclined to be a cat who walks by herself and consequently my solution is to do even more of that and for more protracted periods of time. It usually helps, and sooner or later I resurface ready for whatever's next.

Anyway, I have spent the last few days with a high fever of semi-hallucinatory proportions which turned out to be related to a tooth infection and is currently being nuked by some heavy duty antibiotics. It has been both frustrating - dizzy, weak and devoid of energy - and curiously soothing in a way that I haven't experienced fully since being confined to bed as a sick child.

Patience is not often one of my strengths but I have had to exercise it a good deal lately. All the 'must dos' and the inner promptings to get on with life have had to shut up for a while as I make my recovery. I practice looking at clouds and listening to the house martins screaming as they swoop after bugs outside my window. I doodle 27 houses in my sketchbook, comforted by the familiar repetition of the shapes and the movements of my pen on the paper. And I feel better than I have in a long while knowing that I'm right where I need to be and that, in truth, I always have been.