Having tested positive for covid last Wednesday morning I have enjoyed my own company for precisely 9 days! This blog is about what I learnt that week at home by myself and is perhaps best summarised as a week in splendid isolation!
On Monday evening I received a text from my boss to tell me that one of my colleagues had tested positive. We had shared a car that day, without masks on, and sat in close proximity in the office at Kirkcaldy again without masks. And so, on Tuesday morning when I tested I looked expectantly at the test waiting for the two tell tale lines to appear… but they didn’t!
I couldn’t believe it, but went about my morning work happily. I let those parents whose children had been at the Kids group with my colleague last night know about our positive test, and kept my distance and trusty face shield on.
After Lunch I had a slight headache, but toddlers had been very hectic and thought that it was catching up with me. But as Cameo went on the headache didn’t disappear. I tried to keep my distance from the folk at the meeting just in case.
That night I went to bed early thinking an early night would help shift the remnants of my headache, but woke in the night and the realisation that I had a sore throat, cough, temperature and headache led me to conclude my test in the morning would be positive…
Sure enough it was, and here began my isolation.
The first couple of days were filled with me attempting to do work projects for a couple of hours and then having to stop and have an afternoon nap or just stop working because I felt wiped-out.
However, on the Saturday I turned a corner, I felt much better, and spent some time in the garden, weeding and generally noticing the beauty around me. I felt so blessed to have a space outdoors where I could go, and see the beauty of the Lord. Whether that be birds sitting on feeders or the beautiful spring flowers sprouting.
Up until this point I had been so annoyed that I tested positive, it disrupted so many plans, it had stopped all the program at the corps and was preventing me from participating in a concert with a group that meets a couple of times a year.
But having seen the beauty that was around me, and the joy of being able to watch the previously mentioned concert online made me stop and think.
Here I am, someone who had a few rough days with this, but thanks to the vaccines and booster, I was feeling fine, I knew I was getting better, and that I had no need to worry about the other things. They could not be helped.
And so, I started using my time productively, with spring cleaning and massive loads of laundry supplementing quiet times of gardening, sewing and reading.
It was at one of these moments when I was sitting sewing that I felt the peace of God descend. The quietness of my house was no longer something I detested, it was something I treasured.
My daily readings had been talking about different offerings pleasing to the Lord (Leviticus has been the Old Testament portion of the bible in a year plan for the last few days). The passage was specific about what you could offer and how it should be prepared. What animals were clean and what animals were not, what was permitted and what wasn’t.
And in the silence of my house, with the presence of God around me, I offered my efforts afresh to God. I might not be the best at sewing, or music or anything, but that doesn’t stop me offering it back to the Lord.
My time in splendid isolation taught me once again the importance of offering my whole self to the Lord, not to pick and choose. And that everything I do can be offered to the Lord, and should be.
NB: I was also blessed by a visit from my amazing Fiancé whilst in isolation, he came and sat in the garden so I could have some company!!
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