LAID LOW

It's ten o'clock on Monday morning and I'm still in bed. Well, back in bed. I got up briefly for a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal, in hopes of gathering some energy. I'm usually up and about hours before now, but this bug has succeeded in laying me low. Really not much in the way of symptoms, aside from a scratch at the base of the throat and debilitating fatigue. Ellie has had something similar for weeks. I want to get rid of it ASAP because I have a booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this coming weekend and, the following week, a keynote address at the annual fundraising dinner for the 18th Street Arts Complex in Santa Monica...

I've been trying to work with the breath, watching is patterns, watching the body's response, but I soon got into a spat between head and body. Remembering Than Geoff's familiar instruction, "What kind of breath would feel comfortable right now?" my head said: energize. What you need is a good, strong, energizing breath. To which my body said, No. It said, please, a soothing, healing, comforting breath that requires no energy. Head said, I can't believe you're giving in to this; it's just sheer laziness. And body: I ache all over, I can't move, just let me be. Head said, expend a little energy, you'll get energy in return. Get up. Take a walk. Breathe in the sea air. Body said, I need sleep.

So it goes. My body wants to give in to it, relax, allow time to recover. My head is scornful of my failure to tough it out and beat back the beast. For today, I plan to keep listening to my body...