Blowing away a dark fog

After rising at 5:30 yesterday, I spent most of the day traveling back home from Shaw, and then, after taking care of a few vital matters around the house, took off for an evening of adventure and art. We didn't get home until well after 10, and then sat up talking with the kids for a while, so it was almost midnight when I finally crawled into bed.

As sometimes happens at such times, I became too chilled and restless to sleep, and the cold which has been brewing for a while now decided to manifest itself with a mass of symptoms that proceeded to keep me awake for the rest of the night.

So by the time morning arrived (the morning, I might add, of the infamous Rotary Auction) I rolled out of bed in a dark fog with a moderate fever. I went downstairs and had a cup of coffee, and for my morning meditation I concentrated on a healing breath pattern my friend Catherine learned of from Dr. Dan Siegel, author of Mindsight.

You breathe in for a count of four, breathe out for a count of eight, and hold for a count of ten, so I did that for 20 minutes or so, and then headed off to our local clinic for some relief. Interestingly enough, my fever was gone by the time I got in to be seen, but the doctor did a blood test (these symptoms have been building for several weeks now, and have already survived a round of antibiotics ) and announced I was fine, just battling a particularly pesky virus (translate: sorry, there's nothing I can do for you!).

Sigh. I came back home, took some Tylenol and crawled into bed; woke a couple of hours later feeling surprisingly refreshed. It helps that the sun is out, of course -- amazing what that -- and a little sleep -- can do for a mood. But my suspicion is that the breathing practice helped, as well. So I think I'll let that be my meditation for the next few days, and see if it continues to help me recover. Perhaps the breathing works like the wind, to blow the dark fog away...