For once in my life….

Holiday time has finally rolled around. Plans ahoy!  However the unplanned stowaway was Mr Virus.

Now, many will be familiar with that feeling ~24hrs ahead of the out of office button being pressed that something is brewing.  You might be mislead into thinking that its just the rushing around pre hols but be vigilant people.  I can confirm that it is in fact your immune system checking into the first class lounge as it prepares to leave for the Caribbean.

You however will be oblivious as you naively continue your plans for ‘quality family time’ complete with a world breaking effort in creating Kodak moments that all your friends and family will be jealous of.  Complete with Facebook and Instagram posts without filter – because you’re that amazing!

Then Mr Virus hits. Without realising it you have become the 5 star holiday home it had booked the year before.

Now usually I spend quite a bit of time fighting the uninvited visitors. It ain’t pretty and usually I loose. The battlefield ends up with me being exhausted, mood in my boots (I really am the most terrible person/mother/wife/friend/daughter etc etc). I would drag myself back to work with that feeling of ‘why did I bother?’.

This time I almost repeated the 10 year cycle of non learned behaviour then something magical happened. I gave in.  For once in my life I surrendered. Right at the start of the fight.

In doing so I won.

I can’t say in all honestly my recovery was quicker or less vile.  It was however a much easier process. I let the hideous thing run riot for the best part of a week.  I was almost in the third person watching it. I indulged in my guilty pleasures – reading newspapers cover to cover and watching property programs. A particular favourite being the ‘A Place in the Sun: Winter sun edition’.  I’ve travelled the world this week judging and passing comment on everything and anything. The pool is too small. The beach is too far to walk to. Its not south facing.  Two bedrooms, are you kidding me? I need three.

After my pseudo foreign trip I was fighting fit and able to witness the spectacle that is Beyonce.  The talent, the work ethic is enough to put us mere mortals to shame.

We held a moments silence without realising that at that moment we were silent to the unfolding horror that was the Dallas shooting. And suddenly my brain was struggling to make sense of the world again. Except this time there was no virus, no delirium to explain it away.

I’m not going to get into a commentary about life in the USA.  I know very little about these things to be credible.  What I do know is that violence is not the answer. I feel the frustrations – why do people act/behave in that same way they always do?

As Martin Luther King said:

So as I go into my second week of holiday I will indulge in the luxury that is my family close. The friends I treasure near. I will pray. I will continue to shine.

For once in my life I will just….. Be.