The onset of a cold

My trusty doona

I went to bed with clear sinuses and a moistened throat, and woke in the middle of the night with a blocked nose, sore throat, and throbbing in the temples.

“I’m sick” was the first thought out of the haze. I got up to go to the bathroom, and in the slow movement towards lucidity, I noticed the notion of a thought germinating, something along the lines of “this shouldn’t be happening”, but before it could fully form — poof! The energy disintegrated, and I rested in awareness. In I am.

From that narrow laser beam of a thought, I floated back to the seat of awareness, the wide, vast space in which ‘sickness’ was happening. I felt the sensations of the cold as pure energy — distortions of a default state, but neutral nonetheless. Not good or bad.

When I took my ibuprofen, there was no air of complaint. No resistance while cracking the pills out of the pack, filling up my water bottle at the tap, and swallowing. There was pure action, doing what seemed necessary without huffing and puffing.

I felt this experience to be no different from an experience of elation. In all, I am.