BLOGOPHILIA WEEK 23.7 TOPIC: UNRELENTING SPIRIT

Blogophilia Week 23.7 Topic: UNRELENTING SPIRIT
Bonus Points:
(Hard, 2 points) Incorporate a Mary Poppins quote or line (such as "A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down")
(Easy, 1 point)   Include two types of yellow birds in blog

UNRELENTING SPIRIT

"The difference between the optimist and the pessimist is droll, the optimist see the doughnut;
the pessimist...sees the hole!"

I'm sure we've all heard that darling quote?  Perhaps spoken to us at some time in our lives when we were being a lot less than positive in some sort of circumstance that we found ourselves in?
There are others, of course, that have (more of less) the same meanings...namely:

Seeing the glass half full instead of half empty, seeing the rose and not the thorns, the bowl of cherries and NOT the pits?  How about "If life hands you lemons...make lemonade"...I think that's one of my least favorite "be more optimistic" prompts!  Someone on Facebook must agree with me, for they posted a "Grumpy Cat" pic that had the caption: "If life hands you lemons...throw those suckers back!"

Looking on the "bright side" versus "dwelling on the "doom and gloom" and hiding in the shadows...isn't always an easy thing to do.  It is, for instance, much easier to be "positive" when "we" are in good health, as opposed to when we are feeling sickly and ailing.  There is something about "sickness" that just zaps that sunshine right off of our horizon! The clouds start rolling in and before we know it...we are seeing only "gray" through our lenses...with out a touch of "rose color" anywhere to brighten that picture!

Being sick?  It's the PITS!

I'm not really a "whiner" by nature...but when I am sick...I turn into a rather pathetic creature! Toss an ear infection on me, compound it with a sinus infection, a sore throat for good measure and two pink eyes to just "top it off" and yes...I will cry you a "sad song" bluer than any "Song Sung Blue" that even Neil Diamond can croon!  When hearing, speech, breathing and sight are impaired, "we" are, let's face it, simply not "ourselves". We are miserable and looking for comfort anywhere we can find it. Our needs are fairly simple, they range from a soft pillow, to a comfortable (even raggy looking) robe, tissues with aloe, some hot beverages like tea with lemon...and honey...and a few kind words of sympathy...maybe even a hug, from those around us who are not feeling their own health endangered by our "condition".  Me?  I had my daughter backing away from me with a look on her face that said..."Do not come any closer". She could not have made herself more clear if she had grabbed a cross and held it up to keep the "demon" (me) away!

When we're sick...we want to believe that we can get better without having to run to the doctor (at least I do)...which is why we put off, seeking professional advice, till we are just a few levels more miserable than before.  When we do drag our sorry asses to see that Doc...to get yet another antibiotic (that may or may not work) and drops to put in eyes and ears, spray to put in nose and Lord knows what else...that Doc usually thinks he (or she) are being quite humorous...when they say "Damn you look awful...what took you so long getting here?"  Funny...NOT!

Now we are medicated and given instructions that confine us to our homes till we are "better". Though this
quarantine may help us recover and heal...it nearly always ZAPS us in our wallets...those of us who have little to no "sick time" left at work!  Home we stay...where we can bitch and moan and groan to our heart's content and that should make us a bit "happier", right?  Think about it...all those things we wanted to catch up on...reading, writing, laundry, cleaning, TV shows we missed etc.  We are home for at least 3 days...give or take a day or two...while we wait for the fever to break and the ears to hear, eyes to see and speech to sound normal again...and not like someone is raking our vocal chords over the coals!
But the joke is on us...again.

Wrapped in our ratty (but comfortable) robe, tissue box at hand, blanket in one hand and pillow in the other...there IS NO COMFORT...to be found!  We try to move around...but the aches and pains make us groan...we try to sit and watch TV...but it all just blurs into those bleak, gray clouds that obliterate ALL!
SLEEP...sleep is all that will help, we decide.  But sleep...is what we can't do...because we are so uncomfortable, feverish, hot and cold, drippy, and stuffed at the same time...WHAT TO DO? How do we escape (even temporarily) from this physical body that has failed us in such a dismal manner?
We remember, from some unconscious little corner of our brain...a commercial...for Nyquil!
What was that advertising slogan..."Nyquil...The nightime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can rest medicine!"  YES! That is what we need! Do we have any? As we lay there, on the couch contemplating this important question...we realize that it is getting light out...there are birds twittering and singing out there...welcoming the dawn that we do NOT want to see!  WHY...WHY are they singing so LOUD???  How close are they? And then we see one...a yellow bird...a canary? Up on the telephone wire...it is singing for it's mate...STOP!!! You want to scream but it comes out a muffled groan...like everything else.  Another bird flies to the wire...the first one's mate?  At second thought...they were probably Orioles...canaries would not be sitting on the telephone wire! As the singing reaches a frantic pitch...you fantasize about throwing those lemons of life and knocking those birds right off the wire!  But wait...your feverish brain whispers...You like birds...remember? So there will be no lemon throwing today!

You whimper a bit and sigh and rise like a drunk person from the confines of the couch...wrap your (ratty) robe around you and shuffle off  to the bathroom in search of the "magic elixir" called Nyquil.  As you pass by the T.V. you hear someone quoting Vince Lombardi...

"The darkest moments of our lives are not to be buried and forgotten, rather, they are a memory to be called upon for inspiration to remind us of the unrelenting (human) spirit and our capacity to overcome the intolerable."

"Inspiration", you mutter...BAH! "Unrelenting spirit"??? Bet whoever Vince was talking about wasn't sick!
"Intolerable"??? Yeah...ya got that right!!!  As you shuffle into the bathroom and reach (with a shaky hand) into the medicine chest...you find that bottle of Nyquil...but it is rather small.  You hope there is enough left to "knock you out"...a silent prayer that there is!  You sit down (remembering to close the lid) on the toilet...and ponder getting that liquid from bottle to cup without spilling any of those precious...sleep inducing...drops!

The voice inside your head is mocking you again...

"Why do you always complicate things that are quite simple?"  The voice asks you and you find no good answer...except to "Chug a lug" the contents of the bottle...thus eliminating ANY possibility of waste! Then you sit and wait...and wait a little longer...and just about then...the yellow birds start flying around your head...how did they get inside...you wonder?  It's the last conscious thought you have before the Nyquil hammer slams down and you are out for the count!

They found you there, a few hours later...all curled up in your ratty robe on the bathroom rug.  Ollie, the wiener dog tried his best to revive you...his concerned little tongue slobbering all over and his tail beating like a drum against your forehead, while his intrusive wet nose pushed and prodded...but...they tell you later...to no avail. You were, it seems, "out cold".

When I finally came too...a mere 12 hours later...I did indeed feel better!  My bowl of cherries was not completely without "pits",,,but there was a bit of color to be seen...mingled with the "gray-tones" of my outlook on life. The "darkest moments" were gone and I had survived this rampage of infection.
I lived to tell it and mark my words...my mother was right!  She had a plaque, which hung in her bedroom and now hangs in mine...the words on it are written in German:

"Alle Wuensche werden klein,
gegen den gesund zu sein".

[All wishes become small (and unimportant)
  when they are compared to the state of being in good health]

**P.S. For those of you reading this...of course there are ailments far worse that what I battled through and my intent is not to make light of those or exaggerate what I suffered. I am just trying to point out the utterly ridiculous level of discomfort that the common cold (compounded by bacterial infection) can put a human body into. Illness is an equalizer...it brings us to our knees and we ALL pretty much handle being sick...
poorly. We want to be healthy again...and that IS our unrelenting spirit...that will not let us stay down...on the couch, on the bathroom floor...or wherever we land...when we are sick.  We rise again...and again...and again...and that is GOOD!**

Guesses:
Topic: Lika
Pic:  Sallon
Pic guesses:

Mirage
Desert flower
Blown away
Angel in white
Lady in white
woman in white
Whiter shade of pale
nights in white satin
blowing in the wind
wind swept
runaway bride
white rose