Sick up to here

Thank you again for all your well wishes...My sniffles have subsided now, almost a dim memory. I found it rather interesting having something so medically minor and mundane, albeit intrusive, to deal with for a while and found it fascinating how much attention it got! Nothing changed my opinion that colds are funny, but I think that got lost in translation somewhere. I may try harder to get my point of view across should it happen again...


You do know, by the way, that the opposite of my blog ethos is true, don't you? That dark thoughts and dismalness are as contagious as any germ?  The body also has some difficulty distinguishing between things you are just thinking about (or watching or listening to) and things that are actually happening.  It's for this reason that try to limit both my intake and output of descriptions of health problems and misery in general. The papers, radio and TV, social media and many a simple conversation are full of spin that seems designed to make you anxious, angry and sad. It's not that I'm especially susceptible because I'm quite good at visualisation (You probably can't begin to imagine how well I imagine things!) - your body reacts too, maybe imperceptibly, but it does. Nothing is 'all in the mind' and if you are physically malfunctioning in some way  it's an particularly fine idea to try to ensure your mind is as well as can be.

My mother was quite ill health obsessed but it was only when I became seriously unwell I realised quite how much dwelling on it there is, how much eagerness to swap 'sick' stories...ours or other peoples. Sharing and caring are all very well up to a point but there us a level at which, if we are not careful, we think it makes us more interesting or important or worthy of attention or happiness. Notice I'm saying 'we'...don't go off in a huff of assumed injustice, dear reader! I guess we evolved to do this so others might bear us away from beasts that consider damaged humans convenience foods. What doesn't kill us doesn't make us stronger but more manipulative maybe?

So I try to temper my references to physical or emotional distress with mention of something jolly that happened alongside of them, or that perhaps that I wouldn't have experienced without.  I know I don't always succeed but I think it's really important to try, to do my bit to counteract the passing round of suffering, especially when what I'm trying to do is pass on wellbeing and joy. I even attempt not to tell myself when I'm in pain or tired or whatever, just experience it and not create a narrative too as to me this feels a whole lot more...well...healthy! Easier said than done of course and I do understand that other people might not have the same aim in life...though to be honest, I'm not sure I understand why!

Anyway, I've given this post a title that will attract those that groom for gloom and maybe they'll get this far and consider other options! I started today very grateful that the disturbingly realistic and rather unpleasant dream I had wasn't real. And followed that with thanks that I sent a text to someone whose birthday it was although I didn't know and thus was reminded and could take appropriate action! There was much gratitude when I discovered my store of cards had something suitable for this and another birthday on the way, and even a little token gift. I'm grateful also that various forms of short shift work worked out...a little pinning, tacking and sewing, typing a letter and after print head cleaning getting my printer to print! I'm also greatly grateful for my daylight lamp for boosting the natural paucity today, and that the mysterious long strip of white approaching shore somewhat alarmingly earlier was not a tsunami but a long thin gap in the clouds illuminating a similarly shaped and apparently moving strip of sea...