The Best Laid Plans

I had a lot of plans for this week. Most had to do with preparing for the arrival of 2011. I was going to do some reflecting back inspired by the crew at reverb10. In fact in my last newsletter I invited my readers to stop by this week for a special retrospective on my year in blogs.

I was also going to spend some time looking forward to what I wanted 2011 to look like. I was going to write. A lot.

But none of it happened. I got thrown a curve ball.

It started late on Christmas Day with a scratchy throat. By Sunday, the day of the big blizzard of 2010 in NYC it was officially sore and joined by feverish flu like symptoms.  Somewhere along the line my ear started to ache and my sinuses got infected. I was down for the count.

There was no writing getting done. There wasn't even reading. With nothing left in my DVR cue to watch I was relegated to actually watch commercials! Until I remembered that I had the entire third season of InTreatment on HBO OnDemand to get lost in. Maybe that was what created the migraine.

I can't remember the last time I was home sick, this sick. In my corporate days, I harbored at least one sinus/bronchial type infection a season. More so when I traveled as part of my job. Then it seemed all I needed to do to pick something up was step inside a plane and breathe in the germs.

But here I was, just one week after I was remarking that I don't really get sick anymore since I left Corporate America finding that getting up to go from the couch to the bed to be  a test of Olympic strength.

My plans, that long list of all I wished to accomplish this week suddenly seemed inconsequential. Turning out a few good blogs, finishing up my book proposal, looking back, looking forward seemed secondary to feeling healthy again.

In the delirium of my fever, thoughts and ideas raced around my head in a blur of light and color like Times Square at rush hour. And it kept going back to the wellness thing again.

My cousin Joanne (Yes, we have the same name. There is a shortage of names to go around in any good Greek family) has always been the one to remind me that when you have your health you have everything.  But strangely we all seem to forget that when caught up in our normal routine. We take it for granted as we do so many of the really important things in life until we get thrown a curve ball.

I'm lucky. My curve ball had a shelf life that was waiting for the fever to pass.

Maybe my body needed the break before 2011 starts. Maybe I needed the reminder that sometimes just because we plan for something doesn't mean we are going to do it or have to do it. Maybe there is a better plan and that includes not starting day one of 2011 with my plan firmly in tact. In any event my best wishes to you all for a joyous, abundant and very healthy New Year!

What do you do when you get thrown a curve ball?
Do you have your plan for 2011?