OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.
My brother sent me this photograph from his walk today. All snowy peace and quiet.
What a night, though? I did sleep a bit but, mostly, I was wide awake staring at the CNN news feed with ever wider eyes. Eventually, I was in my polar bear suit (a furry white hoodie, a gift from my Mom that I always wear for comfort), drinking hot chocolate and still gaping a the TV at four a.m.
Psychopaths. The moment one arrives on the scene, truth and transparency go out the window, and gaslighting, manipulation, chaos and devastation follow. It was on full display last night.
I keep thinking about David Gillespie’s Taming Toxic People: The Science of Identifying & Dealing with Psychopaths at Work & at Home. It should be taught at schools, because identifying a psychopath is actually quite easy once you learn how to see through the smokes and mirrors and look straight into the horrific inner void of a monster. And dealing with them is also possible. Best solution: do not engage, walk away (or rather: RUN!).
Today was strange, of course, made stranger by tiredness and little snippets of difficult news and then no news from the ICU until late this evening. Stable – that’s all that matters!
Despite it all, I did some good editing work and had the most wonderful swim in the late afternoon. There is a new Frog Prince in my life! The previous one got a frog girlfriend and eventually they both moved on to greener pastures, or bluer pools. Not even a goodbye. I was all alone for a few weeks. But then I noticed that a new frog moved in, twice the size of the previous ones but just as shy; single. All of that shyness, however, disappeared today: I managed to not only swim next to the frog, but also pick him up and hold him in the palm of my hand, and then swim with him while he was still sitting in the palm of my hand (two full lengths!). Then he jumped off and dived to the bottom of the pool. We are a kiss away from a happily ever after, me thinks :) (he might be a she, but this is my fairy tale – a prince he is).
Just look at those legs!
Dinner with my love. Then a Skype meeting with Mom and Krystian.
Now: sleep, hopefully. Good night.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
— NICD
Karina Magdalena 