If you’re a modern human…
…you’ll seek out strangers, sneak into off-limits areas in hotels and bars, head to a dirty corner in the mall, schmooze a colleague, cut calls with loved ones short, beg, borrow and possibly even steal…
…to charge your phone when the % is terrifyingly too low for comfort.
But can you feel the same zeal for your own energy levels?
I’ve just returned from a ‘mini charge of me’ at a manor in the forest. We’re talking a stately situation hugged by green hills bursting with birdsong and quick-footed rabbits (feral but cute, literal blurs of fur).
My ‘home’ featured a mind-blowingly beautiful, gothic novel ‘great hall’ with a fireplace, the obligatory stuffed stag and a grand piano ‘neath a polished oak staircase. I fell in love with every inch – the peace profound, the setting a turn of the century wet dream.
Soon I was taking more full-bodied breaths than my routine shallow sips in the city. But even though I didn’t have to be anywhere for anyone at any time, I caught myself wondering when would all this ‘down time’ be up?!
In spite of the idyll, it still took me a little bit to settle into … the nothing.
On my last day, I gazed up at the soaring windows and spied a Latin motto, inscribed into the hand painted ribbon that curled around the manor’s crest,
Nil mortalibus arduum. Nothing is difficult for mortals.
A double meaning if ever there was one?
© Phyllis Foundis 2026