February 17, 2022

Here's an updated photo of my stitching in the past few days while I watch all kinds of madness unfold in my country.

Here is my table as I attempted to fold origami roses yesterday. Progress was slow as this piece of paper resisted being folded.

 

February 15, 2022

 My creativity went right out the window this past year or so. My job was beyond stressful and operating at a prolonged tempo like I have never seen in my 29 years of donning the white lab coat and counting pills. My personal life has been a roller coaster on top of the work gong show. For far too many months, my mind and body kept moving forward only because there was only one other option which was to lay down and give up. My life became get some sleep that was fractured by anxiety and waking at all hours, eating when I could and working so hard that I drove myself into a short term sick leave in October.

Somewhere in the midst of the madness, I found a glimmer of hope. I am not sure if it was a tiny dot of optimism that we had finally turned a major corner in this pandemic or a realization that life is passing me by and I need to grab onto it. There was a moment where I decided to do something every day for 10 minutes that brings me joy. My brain has been so fried from the chronic, unrelenting stress of being a front line health care worker that 10 minutes was all I could manage in a focused way to do anything. Some days, I pick up a novel and read a few pages. Other days, I get on my exercise bike to bump up the heart rate and regain some fitness that has been lost. On really good days, I pick up a needle and stitch. 

Burnout was starting to hover again in January so I booked a week of vacation for February. Today is Tuesday and I am starting to joke about how much adulting I have accomplished already as I take care of all the stuff that has been neglected for months like continuing education, paperwork, house work, appointments and so on. Stitching has been done as well and an up to date photo will follow if I remember. 

I hope that you, dear reader, are hanging in there and getting through each day as best you can.
Happy stitching!