Life Challenges: Going Viral

Lemons out of lemonade. Silver linings. Lessons learned. A reason for everything. Accept. Embrace. Celebrate. Appreciate. Transform.

I have been grasping at clichés in search of profundity all week, wrestling with my first persistent cold virus in many years. It is, on one level, trivial. It is not life threatening. It is annoying, nothing worse. But it is really annoying! I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t stay awake. I can’t sleep. Drugs that dry me out give me nightmares. I am crabby. I am self-absorbed. As much as I drip and sneeze, I am a social pariah.

OK, so what do I do with the commitment to “reflect” in public once a week, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health? I thought of bringing forward a past issue of Reflections, one that reflected a more insightful and illuminated frame of mind. On the other hand, I resist the hypocrisy of implying that I am always on top of this game. Reflections is a shared journey with buddies; not a performance for an audience.

In Reflections we see life as journey with potholes, flat tires, and white-outs. I am grateful for the thousands of miles of safe travel and thousands of healthy days I have enjoyed—and have taken for granted. I hope that this period of annoyance will heighten my appreciation of health when it returns. I want to experience a happy body for what it is—a precious gift, not an inalienable right.

In the meantime, I am napping…reading…watching old episodes of The West Wing, eating fruit for health and salt for comfort. I am humbled by the impact that a naked string of viral DNA can have on my perception of mental, emotional, and spiritual—as well as physical—well-being. And I am not straying far from my box of tissues.

What are your secrets for making the best of a bad cold? How do you deal with unexpected detours on the journey to well-being? Lacking sorely in inspiration, I look eagerly to those of you who are willing to share from your own reserves of experience and enlightment this week.

Until the next time, go well.

Pam