I went to bed early last night, and much appreciate the well wishes from all of you. I’m proud to report that the fever broke about 3:15am. I woke up, my forehead was all wet like I’d just washed my face and the broken-bone-aches I went to bed with were gone.
I got up, got a drink of water, washed my face for real and went back to bed and slept until 6:20, waking up on my own before the alarm was set to go off. I know I’ve gotten a good night’s sleep when that happens.
You know, not too long ago, I’d have stayed up attempting to finish the items on the daily to-do list I keep at my desk. There are never enough hours in the day for me, and I tend to push it and tell myself I’ll do just this ‘one more thing’ before I call it a day.
Maybe it’s being over 40, maybe it’s that my body feels more like it’s over 50 – I don’t know, but these days, I really try to pay attention to what it’s telling me and when it screams, “Put me to bed!” I try to comply. (Except when it screams that in the middle of the day, of course. Then I tell it to shut the hell up and quit whining.)
Maybe it’s beginning to dawn on me as I watch my parents struggle with their health problems that this body of mine is really not invincible and I need to take better care of it starting NOW. No more pushing it to its limits everyday.
Whatever it is, I know this: I’m finally getting over being such a hard head, at least in the areas of life where I’m the one who loses, in the end.