Sometimes the body says, “Stop!” in the most eloquent language it can, a slim intuition that lands sweetly in the center of our attention, and gently redirects us. Other times, particularly with people like me who tend to pack in, pile on, and shoehorn in too much on occasion, the body speaks with far more force and dread. Welcome to my little cycle of illness lately, a not-horrible-not-great cold that turned into an ear infection that triggered two weeks of dizzying vertigo (and driving around with bottles of ginger ale in easy reach) ,then opened into a terrible-you’re-not-leaving-the-house and cold-medicine-hardly-touches this kind of cold. It’s a little like the Rube Goldberg contraption of an illness.
Now that I’m emerging, enough to wander some aisles of Home Depot without lurching for my bed, I’ve been thinking about what’s so good about being sick. As someone with a talent for picking up poetic inspiration, and viruses, I should know already, but when the chips are down, I immediately have to negotiate with the crazy things my mind tells me, which range from “Oh no! The world is ending!” to “This is all your fault.” Luckily, a good bout of illness is a great leveler, and a few days of lying around, mildly hallucinating in between downing wellness capsules and Tylenol usually sets me right again.
Getting sick isn’t what I think it is even if it does necessitate missing a conference and concert. It just is. When I think of the people I work with who have truly serious and chronic illness at Turning Point, I see this up close. Some of us are dealt very difficult hands in this life through no fault of our own: M.S. or metastatic cancer, or Parkinson’s or brain injury. There’s a lot to be said about what’s bad in such cases, but judging oneself for coming down with some rare neurological disorder isn’t helpful or appropriate. While a bad cold is a drop in the ocean compared to such serious illnesses, I remind myself that illness is a perfect time to put judgments on the shelf for a bit. Of course this can go too far at moments (Eating too many cookies? What the hell! I’m sick!), but overall, having the pause button hit on my life is just that: a time to stop, take care, burrow into the blankets, practice slower breathing, and catch up on some old movies.
I know it’s dualistic and limiting thinking to label things good or bad — my friend Stephen often reminds me, “Bad news….good news, good news…..bad news.” We don’t often know what we’re getting into or what it means right off the bat, so along those lines, I would say that having to travel only from bed to chair with a good supplies of tissues and cough drops isn’t a horrible thing. Sure, I felt horrible, but then I remember how time and my bodies are remarkable, shifting from one thing to another with surprising grace even if I’m kicking and screaming all the way.
So what’s so good about getting sick? I grow my compassion a quarter inch more for people who deal with much worse stuff more of the time (“Worse things have happened to nicer people,” my friend Linda remarked the other day). I fall in love a drop more with the purpling clouds, right now, banked over the setting sun. I spend a whole lot more time with my animals, lounging in our small herd on couches or beds. I get to be and be still. And I get to get well.
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