By far, the best antidote to burning skin, nausea, malaise, dizziness and weakness is getting lost in something. It's miraculous.

A tried and true piece of advice given to young adults is to 'Find something you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life'. Distraction is like that. Suddenly all the torture is somewhere else. The tremors, pain, fear, anxiety and debilitation are just gone. So this is an area we need to circle around, nurturing and valuing these things.

While we all mourn the passing of hours and days and months in this condition, I think there's a built-in, life-giving agency at work when we find things that absorb us. The same life-giving agency is there when we work at positive self-talk and look for glimmers of joy in the world around us. We're building a catalog of goodness in the midst of utter devastation.

These little insect snowflakes are not that easy to make. They're not a major distraction. But they are a minor one! When there's nothing I can watch on TV, I can still turn it on for the company and work on one of these little guys. Each one takes about 30 minutes. They cost literally pennies and I have no idea what to do with them. I may consider using them in a collage, or put them in the window come Christmas. It's not particularly useful work! But honestly, when you've done all the punching and cutting and unfold it, it's like a tiny treasure, opening in your hand.