Illness in body, not in mind

In reviewing The Selected Letters of D.H Lawrence, Straits Times writer Richard Lim refers to Katherine Mansfield who, like Lawrence, suffered and eventually died from tuberculosis. Said Mansfield of her illness, “…even my present state of health is a great gain. It makes things so rich, so important, so longed for… Since this little attack I’ve had, a queer thing has happened. I feel that my love and longing for the external world – I mean the world of nature – has suddenly increased a million times. When I think of the little flowers that grow in the grass, and the little streams and places where we can lie and look up at the clouds – oh, I simply ache for them…”