Spiritual flu and Positive Thinking

I have a wee little savory bone or two to pick with my revered and beloved mentors (you know who you are!) about Positive Thinking.

I’ve spent the day immobile on the couch, devastated by some old fears and sorrows. It was strictly Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole, without the meditation and sightseeing on the way down.

Times like these you can’t stir yourself to take a cleansing bath or even say an affirmation.

When you have food poisoning, or the swine flu, sometimes you just have to sit still until it’s time to throw up.

Now here’s the bone:

It’s no use at all to guilt-trip yourself when you’re sick. “Oh, if only I had taken that flu shot, washed my hands more often, thrown out that meat …” Maybe. Or maybe the meat was tainted when you bought it, or the vaccine failed (it does happen). Maybe you did wash your hands, and somebody coughed on you.

And when you have the stomach flu, you throw up because your stomach is inflamed – sore, tender, unable to do its usual work. If you could look at the inside of your own stomach at such a time, it would look sunburned.

Not every bad thing that happens to you is self-inflicted, not even on the spiritual level. Sometimes somebody or throws for you or aims that evil eye at you (even by accident)! But sometimes the natural world is just going about its business and you’re in the way. And your spirit gets inflamed and sore. Sometimes you just have to hunker down until the healing starts, and you’re strong enough to reach for the bath crystals or the Book of Psalms.

So, after I spent the day in a state of soul-nausea, I managed to “throw up” somehow, and I’m sufficiently recovered to write this blog post, which is saying much: for me, blogging is about as refreshing and invigorating as cleaning a long-neglected fridge.

Hmm, there’s something way too revealing about that metaphor…

But never mind that. It’s altar time.