Healthy at Home

Reading my trusty fave, Jesus Calling.

So, I have an incredible friend who wrote to me today… someone that I love and respect. She’s beautiful both inside and out. She was venting to me and needed empathy regarding not feeling well. She had a cold that turned into the flu, then an upper respiratory infection and now tonsilitis. Bummer! It has been quite a week for her. She was relieved that she had canceled our plans, a week earlier, keeping her germs at home and away from me & Beckett. I was relieved too, as obviously no one wants to get sick, especially with a little one at home, who has already been in and out of being sick several times over the past several months.

Needless to say, my friend went on to tell me that some of her friends were judging her for canceling their plans, as if she should just go on about her business like she is not feeling ill. Being at home is her comfort zone, her safe space, if you will, this is where most of us want to be when we are not feeling well.

She felt shocked and dismayed by her friends judgement that she was canceling her plans and tending to her needs as a sick person. She said she felt social pressure… I’ve felt this before. So many party invitations or things we get invited to and it is just so difficult to attend them all. Especially as a single Mom - I just can’t attend everything! By the time I hire a sitter, prepare dinner, make “lesson plans” for the evening including bath and bedtime routine, I am so exhausted - I feel like I might as well stay home!

So, my friend was asking me, “Peer Pressure? At our age??” It’s incredulous, I know… but it is a reality of our ever going, non-stop world today. Things don’t stop, people seem relentless on immediate gratification. Getting their needs met in the here and now and not considering the long term benefits of waiting and staying home for rest, relaxation and self-care.

She then went on to talk about the guy who got on the Jet Blue flight without any regard for others and how many people he might infect by attempting to set foot on that plane. Are we living in an age of selfishness? Are we stopping to consider the greater good and taking the time to help others and ask, “is there anything that you need?” “Is there anything that I can help you with?” “What can I do to assist?

How can we make our world a better place to live by being willing to put others first?” Do we need to stop and take a big, deep breath and offer each other EMPATHY?

She and I will get together, we will reschedule our plans and I’m not worried about it. I want her to take the time out to get well and be good to herself so that she can be the best version of herself now and always. I have no doubt that when I see her next she will be refreshed, recharged and ready to take on the world.

So, my question to all of you… have we stopped to think about how what we do or say may be impacting others? Are we considering the astounding power of our psychological, spiritual and emotional impact?

Please let me know your thoughts… Until then.

xo, 💋

Lora