Over winter, everyone around me was falling ill, like a deck of cards after ending a Solitaire game. Everyone except me. Seemingly aggressive viruses were causing harsh colds and flus putting people to bed, forcing them to take a break from the constant, non-stop, hustle life in the city is. Every other year there is a winter like this. Humans have forfeit their right to hibernate, but nature has found her way to make us do so, even if illness is needed to accomplish it.
As with many things in life, you don’t really appreciate health unless you don’t have it. Wishes of health usually go around Christmas and birthdays, but if you have always been a healthy person, you accept them and shrug at them. For a healthy person, being well is like breathing. It just happens. It’s only when you fall ill that you realise how good you had it… and yes, this happens even when all you have is the common cold.
Everyone was falling ill, as I mentioned. Except me. I survived winter unscathed by colds and flus. I like to think this was on purpose. I needed my body to be healthy, because my mind was falling apart. My day to day was fueled by adrenaline – of finding a job, surviving the current one. Unable to control my life, unable to plan it. Being alone in all of this, no support network in sight. Nature knew it; there was no time for hibernation. I’m not sure I would have survived if physical sickness had lodged on my body this past winter.
But now that I’ve settled in my new job, now that my body is at ease, I can plan my life in the short and medium term, and I finally feel some joy in the work I do everyday… now permission was given for some intruder to settle, setting off my immune system and putting me to bed for three days.
This was the strangest cold—no fever, yet every inch of me ached. My back refused to let me stand, and my nose was so blocked it felt like my face had turned to stone.Then my smell and taste were gone – which makes me think this was actually covid. It does not matter. Recovery has been slow, and it will probably take me another week to be fully healed. Just not enough yet to go back to my cardio at the gym..
Victorians prescribed the fresh air of the countryside (or seaside) as a cure to many illnesses. I understand why. I always feel I need to go to Nature. Perhaps there is an inner, very primal, desire to run to home – our primary one being nature. Forestry, trees, grass, the smell of soil, the rustling of leaves, the whispers, the mossy feeling on our lips. We’re alive and well, that’s how it makes us feel.
A part of me wanted to head off to Richmond Park, but its enormity was something I was hesitant about due to my still fragile state. Life ended up pointing to the right destination. I wanted to return something I had ordered online, but weirdly, I had to print it out to return the label – and no, I do not own a printer. I also didn’t want to wait to go to the office and the trouble of finding where a printer is located… and the other option was to go to a physical shop.
There aren’t many in London, but one of them is located in Kingston, a place I had never been to before. Looking at Google Maps, I immediately noticed the huge park next to Hampton Court – a palace that I had visited in the past. Turns out this is the only Royal Park of London I had not visited… and it’s inhabited by so much wildlife. Who would have guessed that the need to return a couple items would have lead me to it?
Bushy Park is in many ways similar to Richmond Park – but I would say Richmond is for proper hiking, hilly, wild forest, truly wild. Meanwhile Bushy Park is slightly more manicured, smaller, and easier to go there just for a relaxed stroll (even though I did end up walking 13 km). And it’s stunning in its own right. Here are my pictures of my restorative walk in nature, and what a great way to bid farewell to May, and welcome June – enchanted to meet you once again. The month of my birth, and so, the best 🙂
Love, Nic
The Winged Bone 
And you got to see so much wildlife! I hope you’re feeling better now. We’re about to hit winter on this side of the world and just on cue- I am also recovering from what I think is covid too.
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I am, thank you! I hope winter is kind to you, and that you feel better as well 🙂
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