One Day at a Time

Well, I thought I avoided it. My boys fell first. They missed a few days of school with an awful bug that included a sore throat, body aches, dizziness, ear pain, congestion. Steve fell next, and hardest. He's really been completely miserable for almost a week now. But somehow, as each of them fell, I was still functioning just fine - even still out running on the rail trail everyday - hey - I even achieved 2.5 miles for the first time this week! I really thought I'd avoided the whole thing by my clean and healthy living. (Aren't I so special) But today I was humbled. Sore throat. Muscle and joint aches, and now here I am on the couch, the final victim in our house of the virus.

Here I sit, pretty groggy, wondering if I'm going to get better enough to enjoy Palm Sunday and Holy Week (the craziest and most demanding week of an Episcopal priest's year), or if I'm going to get worse and become as sick as Steve is. I'm drinking lots of fluids and getting lots of rest. What else can I do? I've been in my jammies all day and wrapped in a cozy blanket.

But one thing I've noticed is that my Al Anon program has really helped me in this situation. I'm not letting myself get anxious about what might happen tomorrow or Sunday - or next week. I'm just going to deal with today. I'm going to take as good care of myself as I possibly can moment to moment and turn the rest over to God. Whatever happens will happen and I will deal with tomorrow when it arrives.

I suspect that being too sick to care about much of anything makes this a bit easier. But I can really tell that my program is helping. I would not have been this serene coming down with a bug two days before Palm Sunday in the past. This year I know in a really new and liberating way that Easter will arrive with or without my help.