Starting the school year out on crutches was a huge lesson in letting go of what you have planned to do and dealing with the situation at hand.

Lesson learned:

Be flexible and let go of expectations of how things “should” be or at least how I’ve always done them.

Got it.

See, this yoga thing is working….

Or so I thought.

Then I caught the Worst.  Cold.  EVER.

Exactly what life lesson is there to be learned from the cold that I think is going to kill me?

Last week I wrote about being sick. Convinced that if I just stayed home and took really good care of myself, I’d get healthy faster and be able to return to my regularly scheduled life of anniversary dinners (missed it), birthday parties (stayed home instead) and yoga classes (who wants old misses tissue-stuffed-up-her-nose on the next mat?)

When I finally called the doctor on Day 7 (because I seemed to be getting worse, not better) – he said this round of cold viruses is particularly nasty. Feels more like a flu than a cold (blah, blah, blah)…  and really does run the entire 7-10 days of feeling completely like crap. Not 7-10 until recovery. 7-10 days of being actively sick.

Boo.

Since I’m still sick (day 10!) now I’m wondering if it was worth taking all that time off work and doubting whether self-care really does anything.

And I have noticed I seem to get sick more often and longer than other teachers. What is up with that?

Not just this year. Every year.

About this time every year I start to hesitate in making plans because I’m not sure if I’ll be sick or not.

Thanksgiving? Just a quick drive to the Bay Area for dinner and back – I hope.

Christmas? Fingers crossed!

New Year’s Eve? Probably not going to happen.

I am tired of being sick all the time.

I want to make plans to have some fun and be able to keep them.

Not coughing?

Yes, please.

Remember last fall when I got sick? When catching the flu during yoga teacher training almost sent me to the nervous  hospital?

Who had infected me?

When would I get better?

Didn’t those damn germs know I had THINGS to do?

So what do I do?

Start wearing one of these all the time?

I can’t help but wonder what I’m doing wrong.

So dear readers, tell me what to do. I’m all ears.