One of the least flattering photos I believe I’ve seen of myself in a while (although I’ve seen many), taken by myself unawares, when I was a complete COVID mess. Feels like the most representative photo I could choose for the March 2023 update. Lausanne, Switzerland. March 11, 2023.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

So much for how I thought March was going to go.

At the kick-off of the month, COVID-19 finally caught me and took me down. I spent the first half of the month a slobby, snotty, foggy, messy, exhausted-on-all-levels mess. The second half of the month, still far from 100 percent by any measures, I spent crawling out of the abyss.

Here at the top of April, I’m close to 100 percent, even if not quite there. I can at least function, by and large, at normal levels.

Fun, fun.

Especially because after having spent most of February in Washington, D.C., seeing family and visiting the city—all wonderful things and I’d do the trip again tomorrow if I could—I had a lot I’d planned to catch up on in March. Cue the sad (frustrated?) trombone.

However, I did make the most of the latter half of the month, after I had finally tested negative for the prescribed 48 hours.

I signed up for and went to a few of the yoga classes in my part of Lausanne, more for the in-person social engagement and community than for significant advances in my practice. (I’ve gotten too spoiled by the world-class instructors I work with on-line to have found anything to replace that medium for most of my yoga practice. All the same, having an in-person class here and there and meeting other people who practice yoga in the area has real value, too.)

I reached out to a few writers of different types I’ve met over my years here in Lausanne to see if we can’t plan a here-and-there sort of coffee gathering, resource-sharing, or event-attending group in the area. That effort still has a way to go for realization, but it was nice to reconnect with some cool people and to explore ways to connect with them further. As the month closed out, I even met up with one of them to go to an author reading not far from town.

I found an association for people who’d like to explore the mountains around here and joined it; no opportunities yet to attend any of their hikes or other activities—COVID, after all—but as the summer months roll in, I have my fingers crossed it’ll connect me with good experiences and good people.

And I put my shoulders into filling the gap in my delayed progress on my second novel manuscript’s first draft, for which I’ve set milestone deadlines. Anyone who knows me—and, likely, anyone who follows along on these peculiar little monthly posts—knows I approach setting and achieving objectives like a hawk stalks its prey, so despite even my own defeatist predictions about managing to achieve one of my milestone deadlines, I made it happen. Goshdarnit.

All this while catching up on the other activities (professional, personal, life) that COVID derailed.

Getting stuff done and making progress encourages me and keeps me getting stuff done and making progress. Wallowing—or just getting stuck due to life events, like effing COVID—drives me to depths of despair. (As even my husband can affirm, having had to put up with a crying jag at one point during my lowest COVID moments.)

Having achieved at least a bit of forward progress despite it all helps me confront the undone and unachieved things with a little more aplomb.

Onward into April!

Month-in-Review Highlights: March 2023