The Writing and Photography Blog of Kevin J Sabo

The last few days can be summed up with the phrase “that didn’t go as planned.”

I ended up getting sick on Saturday morning, and after a suggestion from the other half I tested and found myself positive for the COVID-19 virus which is making the rounds through the community.

Fortunately, aside from an on-again, off-again splitting headache which is fortuitously being managed with over-the-counter analgesics, this go-round with the damn bug seems pretty minor.

Unfortunately, Lynn started getting sick on Monday, and her mom, who is out visiting, started showing symptoms today, though both of them are showing different symptoms than I which is making me wonder if they are battling the same or something else.

Thanks to having a decent office setup, and symptoms not being that bad, transitioning to work from home for the week has not been difficult.

I am appreciative of having a supportive publisher; they have been very supportive when I was dealing with my mental health “wobble” in September, all through my time away for Lynn’s procedure while web were in Edmonton, and now with this latest setback. I’m just wishing that all this hasn’t been happening one after another after another, but I don’t suppose there is much that can be done about that.

Something else I am grateful for is my publisher’s willingness to listen when things are going off the rails; Friday was my first full day back in the office after nearly two weeks while we were dealing with Lynn’s procedure and, suffice it to say, the day could have gone better for a variety of reasons,

Still, things got dealt with, not necessarily in the way that some may have liked but at the end of the day, I think everyone is on the same page. Throwing in another appointment with M has helped me reflect on things in general and the last few days in particular and this reflection has brought to mind a quote by Greek philosopher Archilochus which says: “We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.”

This quote stands out for me for a couple of different reasons in two different capacities.

First, in a mental health capacity, I can look at the last two-plus decades of dealing with this monster in my mind as a form of training. Is there no wonder then, that when adversity occurs I do not fall as far as I previously did? It’s because my “base level” of training is so much higher.

Second, in a work capacity, I have been a working journalist for nearly six years now, having started freelancing for the Castor Advance, and then adding the Stettler Independent. Joining the staff as a reporter in 2021, I quickly moved to editor of Castor and Stettler, before recently taking on Bashaw as a third paper this summer.

During those nearly six years, I have attended countless staff training sessions, jumped into as many free news-type training sessions as I could, and gained a bunch of experience which again all sought to raise my “base.”

In my most recent meeting with M, who has been meeting with me every two weeks as I get through my mental health wobble, he said that one positive coming out of the significant stress from Friday and yesterday is that not even that long ago, I would have folded like laundry because it would have overwhelmed my coping systems; thanks to the work I’ve done on my baseline and the mental connections I have made, when tense days occur I am able to calmly, logically, and reasonably get through them in a way that everyone can be pleased with the outcome.

While I feel like I am getting through this mental health wobble, M has agreed to check in with me in another couple of weeks just to keep the therapy going. Once I get some more good time behind me again, we are going to start spreading the sessions out again.

Thank you, everyone, for the support, and for following along,

Kevin