It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted to this blog. The reason: brain fog. No, I haven’t had Covid. I quarantined for many months like everyone else. I got my vaccinations when available in March 2021. I wore a mask when I went grocery shopping. I did everything we were asked to do. So why do I have brain fog?

The simple answer (I think) is not doing much of anything. Months of solitude, no matter how many Zoom meetings I attended, Facebook posts I made, jigsaw puzzles I worked, new food dishes I tried, books I read, Internet rabbit holes I went down, the only time I could bring something enigmatic to mind was when I was supposed to be sleeping.

Laying awake at night when I couldn’t fall asleep, I could think of a thousand things to say, hundreds of mysteries to be solved, a bucket list to be proud of, but when I finally lifted my weary head off the pillow, my mind was a blank.

Mental machinations at night are just not the same as having an active mind during the day. The mind needs to be challenged. Even though everything I did during the day could be considered a learning experience, there is a difference between absorbing knowledge and having to think on your feet in something as simple as a conversation with friends.

Interpersonal relationships, I discovered, are what keep the mind sharp. A large part of a child’s development is having those interpersonal relationships which is why parents are so adamant about having their children back in school. I only needed to isolate myself for this past year to understand that. Interactions with other people, with what they say and what they do, are what challenge the mind and keep it sharp. They force one to think on their feet, to react at a moment’s notice, to make life and death decisions. Reading books or surfing the Internet fills a mind with information, but without a way to use it, the mind dies a slow death.

As I again find myself visiting with friends, volunteering, meeting and conversing with other people, I find my brain springing back to life. It’s not nearly where it was pre-Covid, but it’s a lot better than it’s been for the past year and a half. As proof, I was finally able to sit down and type out a blog post. I finally had something to say that will hopefully help others if they start to experience brain fog without having Covid.