A Little Fever Dream
“To create is to live twice.” Albert Camus
Last week we went to Barcelona with a few friends. During our stay, we did not have any health problems. Almost every morning we went for a little jog to the sea, went for a swim and ran back to the apartment. This was a great hangover cure but also a simple and effective way to kickstart the day. On the last day, a few things went sideways. We were three to go for the run that day. We started at 9:15. The plan was to run to a certain spot on the beach, go for a swim and then go fetch a car. As a point of reference – we had to give back the apartment by 11 o'clock.
After that last refreshing morning swim, we ran to the car and only then did we realise that the keys to the car were left in the apartment. At that point, the apartment was 6 kilometres away. The clock had hit 10 – we had an hour left. We started restlessly calling the others that stayed in the apartment to get a taxi to us with the keys. They took a while to answer and thus we decided that the only reasonable thing to do was to work out more. It made sense since we had already built up the sweat from running. At around 10:30 one of our friends finally got to us with the keys.
We then rushed back to the apartment and tried to eat breakfast and achieve some kind of personal hygiene whilst cleaning. We managed quite well on the timing front – we only overstayed a few minutes. Once out of the apartment, we got pretty tired of dragging our luggage around town and decided to head to the airport soon after checking out. As I stepped into Barcelona's airport I got a runny nose. It kept on getting worse and worse throughout the trip. This led to a headache. Needless to say that the 9-hour-ish travel experience was not the best I've ever had. What came after was even worse though. I spent the next 3 full days with a temperature of 38°C.
I do not get sick often. When I do it usually passes quite quickly. So when the second day ended and my temperature had barely wavered I was confused. Even more because the Covid tests kept coming back negative. 38°C for me meant that I could not think clearly and every little effort made me sweat a lot. At first, it was uncomfortable but then came the third day when it became pretty much unbearable. Before that point, I had some hope but by then it was gone. I had lost hope. I have to admit that at a certain point I became scared. I genuinely feared that the fever would not go away.
I am here writing this so clearly it went away. I just wanted to talk about that one moment where I felt that I was in the hand of fate. Looking back maybe I should not have been so scared. Or maybe, on the contrary, should have been more scared. When I told my sister she told me that there is no point to worry until a doctor tells you there is something to worry about in that kind of situation. We finally agreed that in high-stress moments (self-created or not) it is very difficult to keep a sober mind. After this fever experience, I have found even more pleasure in saying "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
This Week's Suggestions:
👨🏫 4 Principles for Being Present by Camus:
I clicked on this video because of the name Camus in the title. The advice extracted is simple and thus somewhat cliché. Nevertheless, cliché does not mean bad, it means simply that it is overused, but the information itself can still be valuable. The video is short and easy to watch.
This song came on the radio today when we were driving home from my niece's birthday. The voice sounded kind of familiar and thus I shazammed it. Turns out it is an Estonian artist whose songs I have come across beforehand. The song itself has a very nice summer vibe to it. I also happen to like Daniel Levi's voice so that is a bonus.
⚡ ️The Energy Investment Portfolio:
In this video, Ali Abdaal presents the idea that we should be mindful of our energy and what we invest it in. I tend to overinvest. Timewise my investments are correct, but energy-wise not – i.e. I will plan everything perfectly but when the time to do a task is upon me, my energy levels waver and thus I struggle to do anything. Ali explains that we should create this portfolio (he is really into finance) to have a better overview of our energy spending.
That is it for today!
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