Monday, April 11, 2016

Healing Time

The week ahead is  not filled with  places to be or  things to do---at least.  I finally have some space and as luck (my luck) would  have it, I am fighting a small chest cold.  I think my body waits until it knows I can focus on the discomforts of an illness before attacking the germs with the lymph glands to fight the good fight.  Lungs are my  precious weak organ.  My joints repair, my muscles release their strains, my stomach rarely finds itself  in battle with some cellular being, but my lungs open each little  elastic sac to do battle like an eager puppy dog and as the dead germs pile up, I spend the night coughing up their little bodies.  Yes, it is not a pleasant image.  But is it not true that you get sick just after completing some major tasks?

On the glass is  half full side, I went shopping last week and replaced my 10-year-old worn pillow and amazingly am getting better sleep now!

It is a very mild illness and only inconvenient during these days when the nights are pretty cold and the days not much warmer.  Spring is a dyslexic tease painting everything lime green and filling the air with familiar fragrances but keeping an icy wind at your throat reminding you it is in charge.  Hubby had planted flats of tomatoes and they have all had to be removed from the outside mini greenhouses and brought inside the house once again.  He is this optimist every year that gets smacked back by the weather, except this  year he is gone and I  am getting smacked.

I am reading books (Robert Harris's An Officer and a Spy,  Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot by Kim Baker and Bird Cloud, A Memoir of a  Place by Annie Prouix) the last of the three is by far the best.  I  am a pig when it comes to literature and cannot be patient just reading one book.

It is just past 4:00 A.M. and I cannot go back to sleep and so have made myself some hot honey and tea to sooth the  lungs.  The heater is still on and the tapping as the duct-work expands is the only sound in the bedroom.  But in just days I am sure the windows will be open and the songs of birds will arrive once again to my bedroom as dawn breaks.  Patience.

In the mean time, between times, I will select the Kindle or the book and go back to Paris during he war or to Wyoming in the spring and get lost in space and time while my body heals.


19 comments:

  1. I just went and put a hold on Bird Cloud at the library. I am number two in line. Get well quickly, Tabor, and I do hope you will write more posts like this one, which I enjoyed immensely. I was sitting next to you at 4:00am, your description was so perfect. :-)

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  2. Take care of yourself with it as there is a particularly nasty bug going around. Spending time reading, in bed, drinking hot liquids, seems the wise thing.

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  3. When you slow down and the stress eases, that's when you get a cold. Feel better soon.

    I always have a few books "on the go" at the same time. I love the change of scenery too.

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  4. Enjoy your reading, get rest on the new pillow and get well soon.

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  5. Well, it does make sense. I crush of activity and then the body does a rebound and forces some relaxation. Hope you mend quickly.

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  6. Anything having to do with the lungs can be draining and leave you tired through a lack of oxygen. I hope you get to feeling better. Take care.

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  7. Your lungs, my head. When I'm attacked, it's always a headache.
    You're doing the right thing - reading! That's what I'd be doing, too.
    I hope you can still reap the benefits of having quiet time... listening to those musical birds...

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  8. Since the pneumonia, my lungs are the weak spot, also. Hope you feel better quickly!

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  9. I enjoyed your writing so much I forgot to feel bad for you. I think you have got it handled.

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  10. We're having weather too. Hopefully, our last snow was yesterday, but it's so windy this morning that I reneged on my usual walk.

    My weak point seems to be my throat. Whatever else I come down with, a sore throat seems to be part of it. Still, I have been fortunate not to come down with much over the past few years.

    Hope you feel better soon. I don't think you're enjoying being abandoned.

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  11. yes, the body often waits til you relax. at least for me. usually after a big job and generally it's back pain for me. I don't get sick, can't remember that last time I even had a cold. husband suffered a cold for a week this winter but it passed me by. but I will have days when my body just refuses to cooperate and makes me lay around on the couch all day with whatever book I'm reading.

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  12. I'm still recovering after 2 weeks of something in the flu department. I still have some chest phlegm and have been more vulnerable to that sort of thing in the last few years. I've been reading the memoir "Breaking Night" obsessively. Joe just met the author (who went from homelessness to Harvard) as a keynote speaker at RU last week. Also googling "MY pillow."

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  13. I need new pillows but can't bear to get rid of the pillows Ron and I shared. Isn't that crazy? Soon I will take the big step. This weather has stirred up my allergies but it has also stirred up my senses and I am loving the green.

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  14. Oh, dear.
    May I recommend a buckwheat pillow, such as the Japanese use? It is firm and cool and so comfortable. It supports my neck and keeps my air passages open.
    Also, be sure to get the new pneumonia shot, if you haven't already.
    And get better soon!

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  15. I joined you in Wyoming today, but in the winter. Heating pad here for my bad back which is a result of my old IBS. New pillows are always an adventure.

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  16. I second what Hattie said. It's good to get that new pneumonia shot. Please take good care of yourself. There are so many colds around this year. It seems worse than last year.

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  17. You're fortunate to have those virtual vacas , n a chance to rest to heal up!
    i'm doing pollen illness now- here comes the trees!

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  18. Yeah, the pollens have been a problem here, too. Finally went to Urgent Care when I clearly was having ear infection the past four weeks and wouldn't go away. Hope when I finish these meds they've done their job. Hope you're better, too.

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  19. I can *never* figure out what to get when I'm trying to buy a decent pillow. I just take my chances. Somewhere, there's an answer, a reasonable method, but I haven't found it.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.