A Bouquet of Spoons and an Elf – Are All I Needed for Valentine’s Day

Well, the elf is a playful tease I like to use with my husband, who’s always such a good sport about my crushes on video game characters.

The spoons are a metaphor.

I first heard about “spoons” (a.k.a. being a “spoonie”) as a way to explain low/lack of energy a couple of years ago.

Basically, people with chronic illnesses or anything that may cause low energy levels, introverts, people with anxiety, etc., can ascribe spoons to explain losing large amounts of energy for things that, for others, don’t drain as much.

We start the day with a limited amount of spoons only, so we need to be selective about how we use them and when.

I have adrenal fatigue, so using “spoons” applies to me. Though most often I simply talk about energy levels.

As an example, since I’m low on spoons these days, I decided that the dishes were more pressing than the mountain of clean laundry that needs folding. Clean laundry won’t start smelling if I leave it for another day or two.

And, of course, having anxiety makes me feel panicky about having low energy, which drains my energy more, which makes me more panicky, which drains my energy more, which makes me more panicky, in a perpetual loop of draining panic. ARGH!

I jokingly asked my husband to give me a bouquet of spoons for Valentine’s Day.

Of course, I don’t literally mean anything like,

‘Husband, proceed to feed me your energy, mwahahaa!’

That would just be too creepy.

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