Yes, here I am, home with the flu. I can probably join countless thousands others right now who are lying at home coughing, feeling exhausted and getting a bit tired of television, games and email. I’m home with my youngest daughter who also has the flu. I understand half her school has the flu so I guess it’s not too hard to figure out how we got it. Yes we both feel miserable and compare how many times we’ve coughed and who has the worse headache. She’s 9 years old so we alternate between turning the television to watch reruns of Frasier or reruns of Spongebob Squarepants. When both of us can’t take anymore reruns, we make endless lists of our favourite characters, smells, colours, books (I read hers, she doesn’t read mine), and anything else we can think of. Yesterday our fever broke and we were both sweating buckets – we compared whose shirt was sweatier…
Last night I found her in my bed huddled in a fever-free sweat stained little ball. I seized the moment and did something she would never let me do if she were awake. I got into bed next to her, put my arms around her, hugged her and smelled her hair for a long time. I listened to her breathe and for the first time since I started feeling sick I felt relaxed and calm. While the rest of the household was hustling and bustling trying to meet schedules, deadlines, shopping and meal preps, my little one and I created a flu cocoon and made each other feel better. It’s times like these that I understand why the Rabbis always said that Shalom Bayit, Peace in the Home, is the core foundation for everything else. We think it refers to people arguing, but I think it refers to everything – including finding peace when every ounce of your strength is fighting a virus.
