I got smacked with a great winter bug. Sore throat, feverish/hot/cold and total and complete lack of brain synapse. Yesterday, I lay on this couch all day long. Today: second verse, same as the first.
Instead of pretending (like I'd do in the past, I'd keep going, all-martyr-like, until I made myself really sick), I spoke the truth. I. Feel. Awful. (And look pretty awful, too.)
And my real-time angels keep offering the most decadent support:
"I'll pick up Henry from school and bring him home for a play date".
"I'm going to the grocery store. What do you need?"
"Honey, you go to bed. I'll put the kids down."
"Mommy, can I do anything for you?"
When I returned from driving the kids to school this morning, I found a treat bag full of magazines, chocolate, vitamin drink and sunshiney-yellow, we're-here-to-cheer tulips.
Instead of resisting the love and support of my friends and family (I'm fine, I can do it all), I fell, open-hearted into their healing sustenance. I said,
"Yes, thank you, I'd love that and so would Henry."
"Would you please bring me a pint of Hagan Daas chocolate and a rotisserie chicken?"
"Thank you, love, I'll do just that."
And I did. I went to bed. And slept, A LOT.
And even though I'm still sickly and curled up in my sick lair, interestingly, I feel lifted as I lounge, supported. Saying Yes to help is a really, really good thing. Saying Yes to support is as healing of an action as I can imagine.
My lack-of-power brain and I are signing off now. Cough. Sniffle.
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8 comments:
Oh I am very jealous - of your cozy lair and of your angels! My lair is similar, though it's my bed ... xox
CONGRATULATIONS, sicky. You are maturing at an alarming rate in all areas! I love you.
We've been hit by a bug here, too. And I've been rotating the help (i.e., grandparents) so that I can take time off and recover. Asking for help is hard for me, and doing so feels like I'm breaking the rules. But I'm working on it, one cold at a time. Hope you are feeling 100% soon!
Suddenly I want to be very very sick. NO. I don't. I DON'T.
(if I get sick now, I'm totally blaming saying that out loud)
I'm SO glad you said YES to help. WHY does it take us so long to learn to do that?
Get well, lady!
I'm not sure sick ever sounded so good.
In all honestly, I feel for you. I just got over a nasty bug of my own, two weeks it took. Did it ever drag me down.
One good thing about getting sick, is how FANTASTIC you feel when you first get better. See - a bright side.
Sending international hugs.
xo
Why is it so hard, so unbelievably hard, to accept offers of assistance even when we need them most? I don't know. But I'm the same way. The other day on the bus, a man offered to give me his seat (since I am eight months pregnant and look eleven months pregnant) and even though I so wanted (and needed) that seat, what did I say? I said, "That's okay. I'm fine." Why? Why not just say, "Yes, please. Thanks so much."
Hope you feel better very soon.
Good for you, letting others help you, acknowledging you can't do it all, at least not all the time.
Now, could you send a few of those real life angels my way? Pretty please? :-)
New to you blog, just popping in from ivy league insecurities.
I was just having this conversation with a friend literally 30 minutes ago. As independent women, it is hard to accept help even when we need it. In some ways it is kind of liberating to actually respond, "Why yes, I could really use your help. Thanks."
Hope you feel better soon.
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