Recently, I was bitten (in the middle of the night) with the flu bug. That really nasty one which turns every part of your world flipping upside down. Chilled like December yet sweating as if I had just worked out. Oh but I did.
Influenza…here it comes. Tis the season I guess. I didn’t get a flu shot. Last month I was at the drug store and the offer was made to me. Nope, no time for that I said. My life is too busy and I thought I could outrun any flu that tried to catch up with me.
I recall my own past medical battles and once again recognize how much I take for granted on a daily basis when I am feeling well. The best thing about being ill with the flu…well initially I would have to say it is when I finally realize I am winning the battle. When I can stand up and my legs don’t feel like cement, my stomach no longer twisted in knots and the vice is gone from my head. I marvel at the ability to overcome. The shower is more relaxing and I could stand under it for hours. The air is lighter and there is a certain peace in being alive. Oh the back aches, I move a little slower for a day but I appreciate more.
Why do we try to forget those rough bumps in the road? They would serve us well to remember them…so we can relish the mundane moments more and applaud the simple parts of our life. Yet as we write down our todays and our wishes for tomorrow we smudge the print where yesterday was written. Blurring the memories of those tough times, holding them away instead of embracing them. But they make the good times better and the precious times more dear. I guess the best thing about the flu is it serves me with a brief clarity of my life. I only wish I would live in the present all of the time. Ah..I know, in a week or so, I will again be caught up in smudging these memories as I write new ones. Once again simply forgetting that it is in affirming our past that we can truly live in the present and do so with gratitude.
My whispers in the wind - Charlsey Jane 