Principled Sickness

Today is the first day I have been able to pause and reflect on this long month of journeys we have been taking. Perhaps that's why this bug hasn't loosened its grip on my chest since the first of the year. I am getting a little tired of being sick: Why can't I be like everyone else and just dose up on medications until I feel better? Why Can't I mask the symptoms and move on with life?

This principled stance that I have from years in holistic medicine keeps me holding out, drinking fluids, trying to rest, cheering on my body to naturally heal itself. Not so easy sometimes when a jet-lagged child keeps you up from 4-5am, and buses, taxis, excursions and rain are calling you to go. go. go. I remember talking to my sister once when she had two young kids and walking pneumonia. I was in medical school. I gave her all the good advice. I told her, you need to slow down, get lots of rest, fluids and warm nourishing foods. You need to take a month to just recuperate, sleep well, and rebuild your immunity so it doesn't get worse. It is a testament that she didn't laugh in my face. As I find my own immunity faltering and feel a cold mounting in my own chest, I find I am now preaching to the choir. And the choir is not amused. In fact, the choir want to throw the preacher out and find some new principles to follow that include Nyquil and Theraflu.

We left Kona February 13th, and have been in flight for over two weeks. It was an epic trip from Hawaii to San Francisco, San Francisco to Greenville SC, South Carolina to Florida, cross Florida to a cruise ship, cruise throughout the Caribbean, then back to Florida, and across country to San Francisco. We have one final portion of the trip back from San Jose, CA to Kona. All with a toddler in tow. We realized while on the ship that we had traveled likely halfway around the world to get there, in less than a week.

Now from California, we will fly directly back to Kona, where I find, I cannot wait to return. Turns out, after only 6 months in Hawaii, I cannot bear to live anywhere else. Even in mild San Francisco temperatures of lower 50's, I have been shivering uncontrollably. I simply cannot bear the cold. I never particularly LIKED it, but I had no problems braving the SF or Seattle rainy days when I lived there - jogging through it, even sitting outdoors for an outside music festival through the cold, wet drizzle. In fact, occasionally I welcomed the fogging of my glasses when entering a warm coffeeshop, the sound of rain against the windows while I slept, the solitary jogs through musty Lincoln Park... Now after five minutes I am hacking and looking for the nearest way indoors. I think my body thermostat has adjusted to Hawaii temperatures, and I am not sure it will be easy to adjust it back.

For now, I will cuddle in for the evening, sip on my hot tea, and envision my body's defenses going to war.