David Johnson

September 2022

Hello and welcome to my September 2022 newsletter.

I am back in the UK visiting family, staying with my mother. Last night my sister and her husband flew in from New Zealand. Distractions are at a maximum. I’m grabbing some early morning hours to pen these words.

I was going to say that two things have marked this month for me - post COVID symptoms and then this trip to England and onto to Europe for a family wedding. However, I am going to add a third, the first anniversary of my father’s death. I was aware of this approaching and was managing the time with some quiet reflection. But returning home has heightened my awareness of his passing. I have included a couple of recent posts that I have made to my blog relating to this anniversary.

I think as well that the Queen’s death also played into my reflections around death. I found myself returning again and again to the BBC’s live stream of Her Majesty lying in state. My views on the British Royal family are ambiguous, shifting and changing, but I had deep respect for the Queen, and listening to her Christmas broadcast was a part of my seasonal ritual. Like most of the people in the British Isles, I have never known a time without her being present. As was said so often in the broadcasts following her death, the Queen was a constant. Of course in our ever changing world, constants change.

I mentioned in my August newsletter that fatigue plagued me after testing negative for COVID. That, along with an on and off cough, carried on into September. I write this sitting on the other side of fatigue, it is definitely receding, but I was reminded of a time twenty or so years ago when I went through a period with chronic fatigue. A time when it was difficult to do much. Through some wonderful acupuncture treatment and Chinese herbal treatment I made a recovery from that illness, though the seeds of it have remained in me and are triggered at times. Because of that the post COVID fatigue had me concerned (dare I say frightened) that the symptoms of twenty years ago were returning. Some days it was difficult to do anything, feeling as though I was dragging myself through treacle. I find a lot of people hearing fatigue and thinking, “oh you are tired,” but no it is so much more than that. Like a weariness that eats into my bones.

So below is a selection of posts from September. I hope that you enjoy reading them. Please pass this onto to anyone who you think might be interested, and thank you for subscribing.

Wishing you well,
David.