I’ll be honest — I hesitated writing this email.
As your daily host, I not only want to give my girls and boys of the Legion a fun little read every day, all while keeping up my slightly exaggerated, sometimes grossly preposterous, and (let’s face it) wildly charming persona as your Overlord and Saviour.
Life has enough challenges as it is without me heaping misery onto the smouldering bonfire.
However, a couple of things dawned on me:
1. Part of the magic of the Legion (as promised on the signup page) is the randomness of my daily musings. Yes, I will continue to keep things mostly upbeat, but…
2. It’s also important to show the human behind the keystrokes every now and then.
You see, over the past 24 hours, I’ve felt mentally and spiritually… devoid.
Hopeless, even.
It’s honestly been one of the lowest frequencies I’ve ever experienced in my life.
I initially put it down to this virus (which it still could be — I’ve heard plenty of stories about people who caught certain strains of COVID dragging them into a dark pit), but the more I ruminated on it, the more I started to suspect isolation was the true culprit.
If you’ve been keeping up with these emails, you’ll know I’ve been keeping away from Laura and Liam to shield them from it; a decision I still do not regret.
However, being cooped up in a room for 3 days straight while your joints are aching and your strength has all but withered away isn’t exactly going to foster a grand experience.
And as much as I’ve enjoyed rewatching LOTR, not even the wonder of Middle-earth could prevent the cracks from forming.
It got so bad that I threw my coat on and forced myself to take a walk in the rain.
I just needed to get out.
It was like something was clawing inside of me, begging to be let free. I’ve experienced cabin fever before, but this? This almost felt demonic. Luckily, my legs had enough strength in them to carry me over to the nearby field where I just let the rain beat down on me.
Deep breath. Long exhale. Deep breath. Long exhale. 😮💨
I’ve never felt bliss like it.
I did this for 15 minutes, and let me tell you, it felt like I had dropped an Atlas stone from my shoulders.
I still feel like hell. But at least I feel like the man I once was again.
The moral of this dreary story?
I’m not sure there is one other than (perhaps) sometimes the best remedy for our angst is to simply escape the walls of our home and stand in the rain.
Until tomorrow,
DJJW