A Comforting Moment of Discomfort
The light outside the window turns hues of purple mixed with a reddish-orange cast. Night is coming. It always feels worse during the night. S t r e t c h. The dragon, previously curled up in a ball to contain warmth, reaches towards the windows and ceilings of her home. The stretching accentuates the achiness in her joints and muscles. But it’s too uncomfortable to lie down so long. It’s also too uncomfortable to move. She finds herself in an endless loop of sitting until it’s too uncomfortable, then stretching and moving until that gets too uncomfortable, only to readjust and sit or lie down again in preparation to repeat the cycle.
The evening offered some relief, a change of pace from the uncomfortable cycle or resting, then stretching, then resting and stretching. Though Zaara was not hungry, a cup of bone marrow broth would provide essential nutrients and vitamins and a source of warmth that would help ease the achiness from the inside outward. Stretching again, she stepped out of her fort of pillows, blankets, and furs. The room was warm but felt cold on her skin and scales. Clasping a soft, furry blanket with one of her wings, Zaara draped it across her neck and the shoulders of her wings, letting it drape over her front legs and torso. She inhaled, feeling the sharp, raspy tickle of her inflamed lungs. *Cough* *Cough* It wasn’t too bad. She had experienced worse.
Carefully collecting some hot coal embers, she spread them out across her stone heating slap. Her boiling pot was already filled with warm water from a previous round. Zaara looked over her collection of dried herbs. Lemongrass was a favorite, but a blend of eucalyptus and spearmint seemed fitting. The dragon mixed the blend of dried herbs, adding some crushed fruit and a little spice to create an environmental tea designed for the respiratory system to encourage healing and relaxation. Soft streams of steam flowed upwards. She inhaled the aroma through her nostrils. It wouldn’t take long before the seasoned boiling pot would take over the smell of the simmering bone marrow broth. The broth had simmered long enough, extracting plenty of flavor and vitamins from the vegetables, herbs, and bovine bones. It would soon serve its purpose, then be stored away for future meals.
The dragon pulled her blanket in tight around her shoulders and gently walked over to her window. The colors in the sky were turning to a dull gray navy blue, contrasting against the sharp and flickering flame lights that filled the city. It was a colder day for Hallador. Not as many people were out on the streets. No events or festivals were going on. Just a few people walking here and there, with the occasional dragon passing by overhead.
Zaara smiled as she observed the city below. She loved her city. It held just as much beauty in the calm, boring gray days of winter as any other day filled with warmth and festivity. She smiled as she thought about the concept of warmth. So many people complain during the winter months about the cold, always longing for the warmer days of the spring and summer. But the winter months do not extinguish the warmth; the warmth simply transitions.
Much like some animals, the warmth, excitement, and joy of summer hibernates. It retreats with us to our homes. It will lay dormant though unless we otherwise ignite that warmth within our homes and give it life. And when we do, our homes can have just as much excitement and warmth as any summer day. It just requires our desire to do so. The dragon smiled as she ignited a lamp.
Zaara again tightened her blanketed shawl and shuffled over to her desk, grabbing a charcoal writing utensil, jotting the idea down on a piece of paper. Maybe she would turn it into a poem or use it as a metaphor in a guest presentation. She wasn’t sure what she would do with it, but she liked the idea, and knew something was there. As a writer and language professor at the local Lund Academy, she was always collecting ideas, never one to let go of some good inspiration.
She had only missed a couple days of work, but already missed the academy. Zaara missed interacting with her students, helping them unlock their creative minds, while teaching them the mechanics we must follow to communicate in this world. She loved their energy and excitement for life. Though inexperienced as the students were, ideas and inspiration seemed to flow freely from their young minds. As much as she taught them, there was always something her students shared that inspired her. It was a life she felt she got far more from than she ever gave to it.
Lifting an arm out of her blanket shawl, Zaara picked up a ladle and stirred the bone marrow broth. She reached out looping a bowl with her tail and poured the steaming broth into the bowl. She gently shuffled over to her wall of a bookcase. “What to read” she thought to herself. She had an ever expanding ‘to be read’ pile designated to several shelves. Zaara thought about the responsibility of getting through her ‘to be read’ pile. She owed it to them. It was her responsibility. She didn’t want those books feeling left out and ignored. But a sick day was the perfect excuse. The many chores around the house that needed her would have to wait. So would her ‘to be read’ pile. With a slight smile, she picked up one of her all-time favorite books. It was a book she had read so many times that it required next to no effort to enjoy the story and the imagination that came with it.
With the book in hand, and soup held by her tail, she returned to her miniature kingdom of blankets and pillows. Scooping up a couple of loose blankets in her wings, she nestled into her padded fortress of warmth. She had to protect herself from the onslaught of the room temperature chill.
Blowing on the broth to help cool it, Zaara couldn’t help but think how fascinating it was to live with the discomfort of being sick. There is so much she could be doing with her time. Why would a creator of this world invent such an annoying reaction to life? But maybe the creator could see that as beings, we would never stop. The dragon reflected on the memories she had of being sick and reading books all day. Maybe the creator knew that sometimes we would have to be forced to slow down. We so often think that feeling ill is this horrible experience. But it was forcing her to change pace. Slowing down gave her the opportunity to rest her body and feed her mind with imagination.
The dragon took a sip of her steaming bone marrow broth. It was a splendid, subtle flavor. The savory herbs delighted he tastebuds, while the herbs in her boiling pot filler her nostrils and lungs with a fresh sense of healing. Since the only thing she could do was wait for her body to fight the illness, she might as well embrace the opportunity to slow down and comfortably enjoy the discomfort.