Sitting with my coffee I review the day before and the day ahead. I wake up at the usual time, but decide not to exercise- my cold has made my sluggish and sore. 

I sit on the couch with my little love, who coughs harshly then smiles at me, happy with something a puppy on his show has done. Clearly we are sharing an illness and yet- he stays more fixed on the cartoon than on his feelings. 

Yesterday was a blur at work. Not full of any major tragedy thankfully, instead the slow accumulation of layers of sadness.  Those who are not coping well, those who are injured, those who are dying.

We are all in this process, every day. While I sit and feel sorry for myself, congested and headachy, someone else deals with the pain of bones full of Swiss cheese holes. Another with the devasting loss of a child or a spouse, 

others with the slow indignant dwindle of age. 

Watching my son in his innocent joy at paw patrol while I wonder if this time he’ll get through it without steroids, I feel  temporarily blessed. 

My minor struggles remind me I’m part of this human condition. It reminds me as always that our bodies are frail miracles, and to appreciate the times we feel alive and healthy.

Maybe today will be “busy”, and maybe I’ll return home with a headache again. But I get to come home to my family to complain. And that makes me feel like a lottery winner in my own life. 

Even while I wish for a cure for the common cold.