When I Was Sick

For a while, I was slowly recovering from a deep sense of fatigue.

I had to limit my screen time every day. I went to the gym every morning and slept eight hours a night. I practiced a five-minute meditation right after waking up. It took me something like twenty breaks to finish writing a single article. I barely checked social media, messages, or email for weeks.

One Wednesday at noon, I sat in the park eating a steamed bun while a street singer sang an old Cantonese song in the background. A few times, I had to pause to remember what day it was.

There’s a saying I kept thinking of during that time: “A healthy person wants a thousand things. A sick person wants only one.”