PERSPECTIVE, PERSPECTIVE, PERSPECTIVE

            There's nothing like a good old run-in with a nasty winter virus that slipped by the flu shot to make you feel positively mortal. Not that I was, or am, immortal or anything but sometimes one gets cruising along and feeling pretty good about one's self and taking one's health for granted and thinking that you will always feel good and then...wham! It hits you right between your eyes, or your ears, or your whole damn body, as it were.

            There never seems to be a good time to get sick but I guess if I had to pick one week of the year to lie around in bed or on the couch then the middle of February would be as good a time as any.

            Then again, having said that, a perspective reset is good at any time of the year. It's pretty hard to lay in bed going through the fever sweats, shivering and shaking away and not feel sorry for yourself but I'll take a bad flu over a terminal illness any day of the week. Perspective's the thing. Some say perspective is the only thing. There's a quotation out there that states, "Life is 10 % of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it". Ain't that the truth?

            But being a bit of a multi-tasker I found that I could do both things at the same time. I could lay around feeling sorry for myself and "woe is me-ing it all over the place" while accepting that things could always be much worse than it is. I knew that one of these days I would be able to get up off of the couch and rejoin society at some point. Many other people don't have that option.

            I did, then, make time for a small personal pity-party for myself. I knew the flu wasn't going to kill me but I was still going to miss some interaction with the Grandkiddies and Valentine's Day along with the Family Day Long Weekend were going to be a bit of a bummer while being sick and all so don't blame me if I wasn't the happiest of campers for a while there.

            Again, perspective came in to the equation and I decided that there could be some good use of my wasted sick time. So between bouts of fever delirium and the over-the-counter-cold-medication's side affects I was able to finish a couple of books, Stephen King's latest, "Revival" and Saskatchewan raised hockey coach Mike Babcock's inspiring book, "Leave No Doubt", both must reads by the way, while also taking the time to review some old movies and documentaries. So...time well wasted.

            A few years ago, after some back surgery, I was unable to perform a lot of activities due to the physical restrictions of the surgery but I vowed that I'd make up for lost time. Ditto this past week's illness. Being sick prevented me from following my workout schedule but it also gave my body a few extra days rest as well. You know, Yin and Yang. Take the good with the bad. Make a positive out of a negative. I may have been down but I wasn't completely out. There you go...sounds like I'm cliché-ing my way out of the doldrums. Whatever works.

            Now that you've got my perspective on perspective I hope you'll put it to good use should you find yourself on the sick side of the couch for a few days this winter.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."-Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).