We don’t get sick. We missed Covid. We rarely get annual colds and flu. Matthew last visited a doctor in 1995 and Chantal is particularly intolerant of not feeling 100% well and upbeat energetic.
Then we caught this latest smack down and don’t try to get up cos you’ll be smacked down again flu. It started with Chantal’s parents who were knocked flat for days. But we didn’t get it from them. They stayed far away from everyone, cancelled social gatherings and stayed indoors. That was about as much as they could do, in the circumstances.
Rixie, Chantal’s mother, bemoaned the fact that the last time she spent any time convalescing was when she was confined to six days in bed after giving birth.
“That’s how it worked then,” she explained, “You had your baby and then spent six days in bed in the maternity home where you did nothing except feed your infant. There was no crib next to you. Your newborn was kept in the nursery and brought to you at feeding time.”
“Quite different to now,” replied Chantal, “Where the sooner they can get you out of there the better.”
“I have never ever spent as many as four days in a row in bed since then!” her Mom continued, “Never, until this flu. I was just so lethargic. That was the worst.”
Chantal’s mom is also very intolerant of illness. Of herself and others. Growing up there was no mooching about trying to miss tests by faking illness in her house. There was no sympathy - you went to bed, stayed there, entertained yourself, slept, got bored, got better. There was no such thing as visits to the doctor or having antibiotics prescribed. Cough mixture and Panado. That’s it. All four kids survived to tell the tale.
The point is
Chantal’s daughter, Cailyn, was sniffing and full of head cold on Mothers Day. She passed it on to her husband, her brother, and her mother. Chantal spread it to Matthew. Our staff at home also had it so it could have been them too. Whatever or whoever it was and in spite of being very healthy we still succumbed.
We were puzzled by this. And somewhat frustrated.
“We eat well, exercise, look after our emotional well-being, and get enough sleep. We do everything right. And yet we still got it, “ said Matthew before he had another coughing fit. “I mean what’s the point?”
The point is we caught it. Like it or not we were stuck battling sinus, postnasal drip, night sweats, and a hacking cough. We have had to be very patient and consistent. Steaming, spraying, supporting our bodies with, mostly natural, products and supplements. This strain of flu is also conniving and cruel - one minute you feel like you are coming out of it the very next you walk into a wall.
Some days just sitting in the garden is all that there is energy for.
On and on and on
Our appetites were coughed away and any energy to cook lay in a snivelling heap on the couch. Luckily prior to succumbing to the germ, Matthew had made a huge pot of what we called pasta soup. He had started out making soup, poured half a packet of seme di melone pasta into it, and ended up with more pasta than soup.
In spite of this rather unusual combination of soup greens and pasta it was delicious and served us for ten individual meals. A bargain at the price, costing less than R100 for all the ingredients! Heat and eat. Comfort food that warmed the tum as it nourished our depleted stores.
The recovery process seemed to go on and on and on. No three day cold this. We are in week three and neither of us are 100% yet.
“It feels like I am never going to feel better again in my whole life,” wailed Chantal, ever the drama queen.
Matthew sat on the bed in a daze. He had one sock on. Ten minutes later he managed to put the other one on.
“I’m getting there,” he huffed, doing his best Barry White impersonation, then promptly collapsed back into the cushions to gather his breath.
The winter crops are developing well. Here our peas are getting flowers, so hopefully soon we will be munching on fresh peas!
An upgrade and a reboot
Our friend Elke describes it as an upgrade. We call it a reboot. It’s like when there are too many tabs open on your desktop. The processing capacity slows down, the mouse shudders, nothing responds to the incessant clicks and eventually everything freezes and has to be shut down.
Maybe it’s both-and. We probably have had too many tabs open in our lives lately. And it’s a good time for an upgrade - getting through this gremlin flu to a stronger, fitter, more resilient us. In the meantime, we have to rein in our impatience, accept what is and wait it out while we continue to take soft care of ourselves.
It doesn’t help to resist it. No amount of railing and moaning is going to make us get better any quicker. In fact, it will probably make it go slower (heaven forbid!). The sooner we were able to accept where we were, snivelling, coughing, watery-eyed, fuzzy-brained, low on energy human beings, the sooner we were able to let go to the healing process.
Real comfort food for the not-so-well. French toast with cottage cheese, honey and banana
Trust what has served us
If you do have the misfortune to catch this pig of a germ, take it seriously. Make sure you are able to reboot and get that upgrade and don’t keep on pushing until you crash. Too many people we know have ended up in hospital with secondary infections.
We are very grateful that there is no mass hysteria, global lockdowns and prohibitions on the sale of stationary, cooked chickens, liquor and cigarettes. We will get through this as we always would have without the insistence on needles in our arms and cotton buds up our noses.
It’s perhaps telling as we hack and rumble through this thing that we read of a Portuguese court ruling from November 2020, no less, that the PCR test used to diagnose Covid is 97% inaccurate. Our amazing bodies are built to work through these attacks and get stronger in the end. It helps to trust what we have been doing for millenia, and not succumb to the terror tactics of the pharma-giants salivating at the prospect of all those potential sales.
As long as we look after ourselves, rest, listen to our bodies, rest some more and give ourselves enough time to recuperate, we will be stronger and more resilient as a result. Our own immune system, specifically the adaptive part, especially in the long run, is much better at this than any artificial chemical manufactured in a lab. We just need to trust that it will do its job, we need to have a little more faith in the way it was designed.
Until next time.
Yours in feeling,
Matthew & Chantal
Experience the ultimate journey in Emotional Mastery online! Our groundbreaking course, rated 4.94, will revolutionise your understanding and management of emotions.
About the author
5th Place
5th Place is a dynamic organization that's passionate about emotional fitness. We're the creators of Shape of Emotion, a revolutionary tool that's changing the way we understand and manage our emotions. But we're not just about theory - we're about practical, tangible change.
We offer Emotional Fitness Classes and courses that help individuals, from children to adults, build emotional resilience and well-being. For our younger audience, we've created the Vibarealm, a vibrant universe that encourages a healthier interaction with emotions.
Join us on this journey to emotional fitness and let's make the world a better place together.