All shook up

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I present to you the chaos in which we are currently living. We are having the house re-treated for bed bugs this coming week, which means moving all of the furniture away from the walls, so Kevin decided to finish the painting project in the living-room. Praise be! I'd resigned myself to the likelihood that we'd be looking at empty walls blotted with holes pretty much indefinitely. And now we'll enjoy a freshly brightened space instead.

As it is, it feels like we're living with uncertainty pretty much indefinitely.

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this morning, in process, two walls done

I keep getting messages from friends concerned about my ability to take it easy and rest. I would like to assure you that this is not actually a problem. In fact, I'm finding it alarmingly easy to rest, for the simple reason that my head hurts when I don't. I can see why you'd think it hard for me, given the pace at which I prefer to live my life, but what's perhaps more distressing is how easy it is for me to shut down, lie down, close my eyes, and not do anything at all. The only problem, I suppose, is of identity. I prefer the Carrie who operates at high efficiency and can be relied on to squeeze the marrow out of her days and hours. The-meditational-Carrie-on-the-couch-whose-head-hurts-when-faced-with-effortful-tasks seems a foreigner, a stranger, from whom I may learn something, someday, but whose presence is, it must be said, a bit of a drag. It reminds me of the six weeks, or so, post-partum when everything would feel off-kilter and I would long for life to return to normal; and eventually, it did, or rather to a new normal. I imagine, at some small distance from now, writing an essay reflecting on this slightly bizarre time in my life.

A friend on FB recently posted a status that went roughly like this: "I'm thinking of all those times when I thought 'I'm barely holding on.' Perhaps it's those moments that are conspiring to help me let go."

I like that. The positives of this experience seem to relate to letting go. Maybe that's why I've been playing the piano more often, and singing: my head likes it, and I feel very free as my fingers and voice improvise and play with rhythm and melody. I'm shifting plans to make life easier, too. On Friday, I realized that there was no way I could drive myself to and from Toronto for a reading; so Kevin drove me, and we got to spend an unexpected evening together. Hardest of all is not limiting physical activities, but cognitive ones, as I'm healing. This includes limiting writing time, reading time, and time conversing with friends, all of which I find surprisingly taxing. I trust that my friendships and books will wait for my return; my anxiety circles instead around a fear that I won't be able to write with clarity and depth, given this injury seems to affect most strongly my ability to focus for long periods of time: that's why I'm continuing to blog. It gives me hope.

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Here's how Kevin and I are living right now: like grad students. It's like we're camping inside of our ordinary lives. It changes the perspective. There is comfort in simplicity, in a bed on the floor and not much more, the entire family crowding in on a Saturday morning to laugh and talk and snuggle.

What happens when we're shaken up? What happens when we can't be our best selves? What happens when we're asked to live in flux? What happens when we let go of all that we can't control?

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