“We forget ourselves and our destinies in health, and the chief use of temporary sickness is to remind us of these concerns.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

It gripped me shortly after the start of the New Year. Since then, I’ve been lying in a state of limited functionality for several days. Congestion, fever, aching limbs and throbbing head. My sluggish body has removed any thought of ambition, creativity or desire. I just want to sleep and so of course sleep eludes me. I will myself to heal but to no avail.

“Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge we make promise only; pain we obey.” — Marcel Proust