What We Can Learn About Grief From A Common Cold

I woke up energized. Ready to write or vlog or tackle a new project. It didn’t take long for that to change as those little tickles and twinges of a cold started to form. Ironically, while watching an herbal webinar on dealing with colds, flu symptoms and coughs.

So the day detoured. I didn’t prep for a vlog, or write the post I’ve thought of for days which needed to coincide with today because it has to do with Halloween, and Reformation Day, and being the church by actually shining a light for Christ rather than hiding it under a bushel.

My day consisted of elderberry drinking, raw garlic nibbling, cayenne tea sipping and layered-up bundling. And rest. The numero uno recommendation from my webinar? Rest.

I can do that.

I’m currently visiting my parents – for rest. You see, through a combination of life choices & extreme stress-filled circumstances, I have been healing and resting this past year plus. I’ve been finding a new rhythm to life as its time for new seasons.

Maybe it’s acute anxiety, maybe it’s PTSD, maybe its depression, or maybe its a combination of all of them, but I’m taking each day as He leads without worrying too much about what’s ahead.

Then, there’s those children. All those crazy, precious foster children who forever changed my heart. I miss them greatly.

As the sun comes down, waves of grief flood in. These tears wash over me every time the dam opens because the tide of pain is still high. It doesn’t take much to put a crack in it all.

And that’s OK. Grief needs to be processed. There’s no “get-over-it” pill that will make things better for my heart just like there’s no one stop pill to cure a cold.

Grief and colds. They have a lot of similarities don’t they? We all experience them in varying degrees. They come on suddenly and there isn’t much you can do about it. You can lessen the impact, but no matter how hard you try to avoid them or cure them, they will affect you.

They take time to work through. And rest.

If you’ve been grieving too, go ahead and cry and rest.

If you have a cold too, by golly, go ahead and rest.