Reasons to be cheerful

My weekends of repeatedly living life on trains and out of suitcases have finally taken their toll. The cold that I have been trying to ward off since the weekend has finally won, so I am 'resting' today.

And despite feeling even groggier than I did yesterday, I decided to count my blessings. And then having counted them, I realised something rather sad.

When I am ill, it means that I am grateful for:

1. my normal state of mental acuity and energy, which I remind myself is only on temporary leave;
2. having the excuse to wear my baggiest, warmest layers knowing that I don't have to see anybody today;
3. slobbing on the couch watching the next installment of 'Six Feet Under' (as has just been pushed through my letterbox);
4. the opportunity to doze between episodes, at will;
5. the knowledge that chocolate does not contain any calories when you are sick;
6. the option of flicking through my email, sending long replies if I feel fit, or putting aside for another day if I don't;
   
7. the fact that I currently don't have any kids to delay the recovery process;
8. not having to contact the office to call in sick, because I don't have a job; and
   
9. guilt-free space to daydream about all of my future possibilities, knowing that taking action with my current lack of clarity probably would cause disastrous results.

And the sad thing I realised is that the only difference between days when I feel good and days when I feel sick isn't what I am actually doing with my time (well, not much) but the level of guilt I feel on how I spend my time. If I had been feeling on top of the world this could have been the one day where I took the action that made the difference.

Oh, who am I kidding? This would have been yet another day where I looked at my oh-so-exciting To Do list and wondered where the time had gone.

Perhaps this is a minor wake-up call. Sod it, where is that snooze button...?