Rest

The one good thing about getting Covid – at least among the people I live and work with – is that everyone expects you to rest. I got back to work too early, and ended up taking Friday afternoon off. It turned out to be a great move: on Saturday I felt like I'd definitely moved to a new phase of recovery. But something else happened in the last week, and particularly the last few days where I've been "recuperating" rather than "sick". Without the expectation to be "productive" or "busy" or even "purposeful", my brain has been ...many of those things. This happens every time I take a few weeks holiday, or consciously relax, or decide I'm no longer going to do something I've been doing because I feel an obligation to do it rather than because I enjoy it. I don't know why it still surprises me every time.

The combination of this relaxed brain state and a fortutious major update to the Zotero inferface (dark mode, finally!) means my "TO READ General" list all fits in one pane (19 items as I write this). A week ago there were over 100 items in the list, so many that I felt overwhelmed just opening it. I've also almost finished reading _Foreign Bodies_, Simon Schama's tome about the entanglement of vaccine development and imperial state building. Whilst it might seem bad to read several hundred pages on this seemingly dense topic, it's actually been quite relaxing for my brain.The ability to sustain book-reading for prolonged periods of time is my key measure for how my brain is doing, and it seems ironic that being off work for a week with a virus that notoriously causes lethargy and brain fog has done good things for my ability to concentrate and read deeply. And coming on the heels of yet another staffing restructure at work, it's helped me think about my relationship to work and "business" and how I prioritise what to work on.

I hope this lasts. Being sick has been weirdly healthy for me.