Since I was a child, whenever the world seemed to get too much for me, I took a bad cold. I stayed home from school and my grandmother looked after me - a special bed set up on the couch, so that I could watch Captain Kangaroo, the Friendly Giant and I Love Lucy on TV, drink fresh squeezed orange juice, and be cured with her homemade soup that she would make for me with such unabashed love and care.
By my early 20's it became apparent that if I got overtired and was trying to do too much invariably, my throat would get sore and I would start to sneeze and then I was off to the races. This pattern has been consistent throughout my life.
Today, one week before Christmas Eve, in my early 50s, I am sitting with $53.84 worth of traditional and homeopathic over-the-counter remedies. My grandmother is long gone. My head is full of congestion and the colour of my very raw nose would put Rudolph's honker to shame. I am feeling more than a bit sorry for myself and none of my many dear friends wants to come near me in case they get sick too (I get that and would do the same if I were them- but this blog is about me - after all).
When I was in high school, I chose the common cold as a subject of an essay. Here is what I remember, and still believe today, from, oh, so long long, ago:
- it takes 3 days for the cold to "come on",
- then 3 days for you to "have it" fully,
- then 3 more days to get "over it".
So, for me this started last Friday, I was fatigued on Saturday again on Sunday, fully committed by Monday, Tuesday (yesterday) was the run to the drug store, which brings us to today, Wednesday. By my calculations, things should start to reduce by tomorrow, be better Friday with most of it gone by Saturday the 20th of December - just in time to get caught up and be ready for the the Xmas events.
By now, you would think that I would be better at managing the stress of day to day activities and not allow myself to get to this point. Especially over the holidays...NOT. Apparently, I still have some boundary work to do!
Here is what I mean, if I were better at saying no to things that I don't want to do, I might not have to get sick in order to have a time out. If I had the discipline of others in self care - resting - taking time for myself - exercising. I have a good friend who regularly will decline an invitation that she must return home to have a quiet day for herself. She is so advanced. So much more advanced than myself. But I can aspire!
I believe that what happens when we are sick is that we are excused from regular obligations, or performance, from showing up at things we secretly did not want to go to in the first place. A real sickness gives us permission to just "opt out" for a bit.
Another friend of mine believes that "when you get a cold, (in addition to the physical symptoms, there is this other thing going on), our physical body and our energetic body are collaborating to "slough off" the old, no longer needed, vibrations so that you can move on to a higher vibrational place."
If you are comfortable with this bit of what I call "woo - woo" insight, as I actually am, it can ease some of my frustration being shut in and cut off from my "peeps". This sickness means that my higher self knows more than me, (hence the term, higher self) and if I don't have the sense to stop, my body does and will bring me to a grinding halt.
I am always aware by the conclusion of my bout of common cold, what the thing or things were that I was battling and end up learning more about myself - it forces me to be more authentic with myself.
My favorite new place to begin research for many things is wikipedia which provide 12 printed pages of thoughts on the "common cold" I have included the link below should you wish to read more. So if you want to know stats and scientific theories there are lots of those provided at that link.
So on this one week before Christmas eve I will go to my own kitchen and prepare my best remedy, one that truly does comfort all of me - my own chicken soup and memories of my Nana's loving care.
I am grateful for my comfortable life and the knowledge that my instructional illness will likely have diminished by Saturday, and I wish you all a warm, happy, safe season followed by a prosperous 2009.
achoo!
the boomer blogger
p.s. if you have your own theories of illness or special remedies for the common cold, please post your comments here at http://theboomerway.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold
