Taking My Own Advice

 

In my last blog post, I talked about how a group of citizens in Washington state are trying to get their library shut down due to the fact that they feel that inappropriate material is available to children/patrons. (Inappropriate according to them.) I tried to express in my writing that just because they feel that there's one issue with the library doesn't mean that the whole thing should be abolished/shut down (i.e., throwing the baby out with the bath water.)

I find myself currently in a situation where I need to take my own advice. John & I recently went on our "trip of a lifetime" to London and Paris for our 20th anniversary. I say "trip of a lifetime" because we haven't traveled a lot (I've never been to Europe and John had been once) and we spent so much time planning it (OK- I spent a lot of time obsessing over restaurants...lol). And you know what? It was a trip of a lifetime. Well, at least up until the day before we were scheduled to come home.

We were walking between 20-30K steps per day in both cities, which is way above our normal step count, so it was natural that toward the end of the trip, legs were sore. But then, it was more than legs being sore. Ugh. 

We were supposed to leave London to fly home on September 21st. The day before, John tested positive for COVID. We're not talking a faint line, either. We're talking lit up like a Christmas tree. Double ugh.

(SIDE NOTE: We were both lucky to have avoided COVID until this point.)

We weren't sure what to do. There are no formal regulations saying you can't fly but how could we sit on a plane for 5+ hours (masked)? After deliberating and consulting with a doctor close to John, we decided we'd need to stay in London and isolate for five days. 

It's a good thing we did. That night, John's temperature spiked to 102 and it was not a pretty scene. There's no way we could've gotten up to get on an early morning flight the next day. I ended up testing positive a day or two later. However, I won't bore you with the details of our isolation- that will come in a later post! 😂

Now that we've both tested negative twice within 48 hours and we feel 90% back to normal, I can start to reflect back on the trip and smile. Up until now, I have to admit- the memory was blemished by stupid COVID. I didn't even really want to think about the trip because that would lead me to thinking about testing positive, our symptoms, being sick in a foreign country, and isolating in a hotel room the size of a shoebox. (Sorry! I said I'd hold those details for another post. 😎)

I've been trying to remind myself that our trip was the "baby" and COVID was the "bath water." The "baby" doesn't need to be "thrown out"/blocked from my mind just because of (stupid) COVID. I know it will take some time and I've already made progress (changing my Facebook profile and cover photos to trip photos) and will continue to (drafting blog posts about the trip in my head!). 

I am here to say- don't let a negative completely cancel out a positive. It may take some time and you should give yourself some grace to move past the negative. Keep the bigger picture in mind. This photo is indicative of my bigger picture.

I got to sit on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower with the love of my life eating French pastries. 

Does it get much better?