Spring Fevers Continue

I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness. ~James Thurber

Have you ever just felt tired of being you? Sometimes I feel just this way. Perhaps I am just exhausted or terribly disgusted with myself...or both? I have much I would like to write about, but nothing of which I want to write about at the same time. I am disgusted with myself because I have not really been doing much at all, certainly little of what I should do. I suppose, if I am exhausted, that would be my excuse for not doing much, but at the same time I have not done enough to be so exhausted.

This time of year does such strange things. We were out most of the day Saturday because it was so beautiful, and we tilled and prepared a front garden for planting a small food-producing garden. The Princess seemed recovered partially from her fever last week, which kept us from going to her piano lessons, but she did not really get her appetite back completely and still was not quite herself. By Sunday morning, it seemed she had a relapse. I stayed home with her instead attending church that morning and Sunday night my nearly ten-year-old fell asleep at service, which is more of a study, while sitting up on my lap! The fever and sleepiness returned on Monday morning, this time with sniffles, a bit of sneezing, and some coughing. Then it dawned on me what the problem has been: I keep forgetting how much the pollen affects us even though we do not have much in the way of the typical allergy symptoms. We have no itchy eyes, no sinus headaches, no puffy faces, and no running noses for the most part, but we are most definitely affected.

I need to remember that about the time the dogwoods and azaleas are blooming, not that these plants themselves the problem necessarily, but just the sheer amount of pollen overall at that time, that the Princess needs to stay inside more with only about half an hour day out at the most. This is probably the cause of my exhaustion too. It is cruel that while the weather is the perfect temperature and the blossoms are so beautiful and the bugs are so low in number, that each hour we enjoy it will cost us at least twice as many hours feeling poorly, but that is the way it is apparently.

It just gives me one more thing to which I will look forward in Paradise!

~ My Lord, please restore our health and energy, and help us to use such precious gifts wisely. ~