Well, my family hit a bit of a bump in the start of the new year and that bump’s name is norovirus or “stomach flu” as some refer to it.
Three nights ago my oldest threw up suddenly in bed and then two more times that same night. He also said that his body hurt. I really need question him a little more thoroughly from now on to see if he is actually sick or just doesn’t want to eat his food. He has been know to say his stomach hurts in the past to get out of eating dinner. Throwing up three times should have given me a solid clue that this was in-fact a virus.
My wife and I caught that virus. She started feeling unwell two days ago and threw up. I rarely get sick so thought I’d be fine but sure enough I threw up all my sushi that same night and had to hit the bathroom numerous times. We both felt awful yesterday. So I looked up norovirus and sure enough the symptoms matched perfectly. The match so well that now I feel much better and can get a blog post up. We were also able to trace the virus back to where my son picked it up. A day or two before he got sick he went to a paid play area called Hop N Play at the mall which is simply full of germs. We pretty sure he picked it up there and since it is highly contagious many who spent time at Hop N Play recently is certainly not having a very fun start to 2016 as well.
If there is one thing most people – including myself – take for granted it is our health. Without health one cannot appreciate life. My wife and I spent the entire day on our enormous couch yesterday and our kids had to spend the entire day indoors entertaining themselves which they did a fine job of. When I’m sick my thoughts are not positive and this is also an awful thing since I need to be extremely strong as I contemplate a change in careers which is a very hectic thing. Do I trade time at home for advancement in my career? Not something to think about when you feel awful I can certainly say that.
So today is Sunday, January third and I’m determined to resume the momentum I had to make the start of this new year a great one. We’re supposed to have rain again today – great for California since we’re still in drought – so perhaps I’ll resume the organization of various rooms in the house. The tail end of this virus will determine how that plan works out.
Before I go I wanted to put down a few more thoughts on 2016 and what is going to be different. I’ve made great progress in my Lapham’s Quarterly magazines which I’m very much behind on as well as other cerebral publications and this reading has convinced me to be more true to myself. 2016 for me will be a year of introspection; instead of spending my time on reading mass media, participating in Facebook and letting outside factors determine my thoughts I’ll be spending more time meditating, being mindful, writing in my blog and focusing on the family.
I’m giving up Facebook almost entirely and will limit the news which is mostly junk these days. I’ve found that we tend to self filter when we pay too much attention to all that is going on around us. We tend to portray a certain image of ourselves in order to please others. This is due to the communities we live in, our Facebook network, the attitudes of friends, our religion and so on. Reading the “cerebral stuff” it tells me that being true to ones self, focusing on what “amplifies your soul” and becoming who you were really meant to be is not an easy task due to all the outside influences.
In 2016 I’ll be focusing on myself and the family while limiting these outside influences – this will be a year of self enhancement. I’m closing myself off from Facebook and writing more in this blog. I may or may not change career. I also need to get my son into more activities such as swim classes and perhaps karate. We also need to check out the archery range and golf course. He must also learn to ride the bike without training wheels.
My life also feels a little constrained by its own training wheels which are the fear of changing jobs and the self filtering which I spoke about. The training wheels need to come off and I too shouldn’t fear radical changes in my own life.
