Long Walks On Leafy Streets

4/22/2014 Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, ME (Thanks to Nicole)
Today I am recovering from an allergic reaction / virus that I caught on Sunday. Nicole tells me that this happens to me every year around this time at the end of the academic year and she might be right. Looking back at this blog from last year I see that around the same time I had similar problems. But I am happy to report that I am recovering quite quickly. It was difficult on Sunday night but I just had to stay calm and rest.
I realized that this was my body’s way of telling me to rest. I had been working very hard for the past several weeks and putting too much stress on the body and mind. But thanks to the increased health and strength of recent months I was able to weather it well. The body needed just enough of a breather to get the immune system going again. The strength of the immune system comes from the mind. When the mind is calm and strong the immune system functions well. It was a struggle to maintain a calm mind on Sunday night, though.
But the more I rested and the more peaceful I stayed the more the body recovered. It was actually a relief to step back and stop driving myself constantly. It was good to take a moment to breathe and relax.
Yesterday was also difficult because I had a full day of work but I managed. In fact I think it is better to stay active a little bit instead of resting completely. The immune system gets stimulated that way. But it has to be balanced with rest so that it also gets the space to recover. So while I did not walk to work yesterday I didn’t drive either. I still walked about a mile to and from work. After every class or every hour of work I would take a few minutes to rest.
This morning I woke up feeling much better. I was able to do some household chores and even go on my Tuesday run. It helped that I don’t teach today and work from home. I cleared out some weeds from the backyard and checked on the plants. The cranberry bush has put out leaves and looks quite healthy. The blueberries are still dormant but I heard they come out only in June. The biggest of the blueberries does have a little bud like thing coming out of it. The rose is full of leaves by now. It was the first to wake up. The hibiscus shows no sign of life yet. I wonder if it needs more warmth before it can start putting out leaves. It is amazing how even after this endless and harsh winter the plants wake up and start doing their thing all over again. I didn’t do anything special to keep them alive. The perennial plants in the front-yard namely the Coreopsis and the Aster Wood have come out in full. I didn’t cut out the stems after summer because I wanted to see what happened. The new green shoots came from the ground up instead of the old branches, sometimes even spreading beyond the original planting. I cut out the brown and withering old stems and plan to transplant some of the new shoots.
On Sunday before I came down with the sickness we went to the Calvary Baptist church near Gallery place for Easter service. I liked that they have a multiethnic, multiracial congregation. Afterwards we walked to the tidal basin and checked out the blossoms. There were only one or two trees that were in bloom. In fact one of them had been in the budding stage when we went with my parents during the peak days of the previous weekend. Nicole remarked how it looked sad amid all the other blooming trees. Now it was in full bloom standing alone in its glory while all the others had lost their flowers to the wind and the rain. It was an interesting sight that late bloomer. I have also considered myself a late bloomer and hopefully my best work is yet to come.

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