Three elderly ladies were saying good bye as my buddy Michelle and I were walking out of the restaurant.
As one of them moved to give another a hug, we heard -
DON’T TOUCH ME!
A real estate broker was denied access to a seller’s home because she had an allergic cough.
My son has a bad cold. I call him twice a day to ask if he has a temperature.
Yeah, the swine flu has infected us all – with panic and fear.
My mother’s favorite quote was “90% of the things we worry about never happen. Other things happen.” Then she would add, “So, if you don’t know what is going to happen, why worry about it?”
There are people who feel that worrying is their job. If we worry enough, nothing bad will happen. We are holding it all together for the rest of us with our worrying. Somebody has to do it.
But, according to the gurus lately, they say what we focus on expands in our lives. Does that include the Swine Flu?
The Power of Intention people agree. Worry, according to them, sends a signal to the Universe so that those things come true. Scary thought.
All good reasons to quit worrying. But how do we stop? There seems to be so much uncertainty. The TV gives us more and more to fear with additional reports of cases spreading across the world.
The real definition of worry is FEAR. So, the first step is to label it. By labeling it we divide it out from the reality that is actually happening.
The Gestalt therapists used to advise that we asked the question, “Is anything hurting you now?”
The answer is usually nothing. What is hurting us is the fear that this unknown virus is out there just waiting to come in and take over our life. Or, that of a loved one.
So, the next question is, “What can I do about something that has not happened?”
The answer is again, nothing.
A lot of fear can be alleviated by taking action. But the best advice is that we should wash our hands. Will that really do it?
Joe Biden says stay out of crowds. They are trying to rewrite his statement but I agree with him. I bet most people do. We may still have the problem but we have done something to begin to solve it.
The truth is when something really bad has happened in the past, we somehow have handled it. It becomes the devil we know. It is not something lurking out there. We may not like it but there are steps we took to resolve the situation. We are resourceful. We are smart. We have done it and can do it again if we have to.
The rest of the worries we can’t do anything about unless they happen.
I’m going to get out my old Bob Marley DVD and dance around in my living room to “Don’t worry! Be happy!” It’s impossible to worry while you’re dancing.
And I am going to concentrate on what a nice lunch Michelle and I had together.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
It sure was a great lunch, and the best part was connecting with you! I had some allergies this weekend and had to spend a lot of time saying, no no, I don’t have flu, I feel great.
Although I voluntarily uninvited myself from a birthday party this weekend because the house includes an infant and I’d been in Manhattan earlier in the week, I’m pretty much living normally.
I do, however, take more care with washing my hands. But I still live my life, rode the NY subway, sat in crowded conferences, etc.
BTW, thanks for stopping by my horsey blog and your kind comment.
Dear Michelle -
We evidently have different trees sprouting in Chicago than you have in Colorado. Glad you are home with more hospitable ones.
Everyone is sneezing and coughing here.
(Listen. You didn’t cough THAT much)
Although, it was so great to have so much quality time with you.
Come back soon after we are in full bloom.
Dear RhondaL -
Let’s hope we will all start living “normally” soon. That was so considerate of you to not attend the party.
I think all our hands are raw these days!
I love reading your blog even though I am not a traditional horse person. You are a talented writer.
This last one was an absolute gem. So clever – and imaginative. I always forward your blogs to my horse friends. They have probably subscribed.
Attention: All readers. Click on RhondaL’s name above where she commented and you can read her last article.
You will really enjoy it.
The talking heads will program us with fear if we let them. I quit watching TV in general and especially the news 25 years ago. With them out of my head there is far less to worry about.
Jonathan – Advanced Life Skillss last blog post..Are Your Beliefs Assets or Liabilities?
I overheard a dreaded newscast mention that the worst might be over.
And thank you so much for your recommendation of my horsey blog. Gosh. I’m blushing. I’m glad you enjoy reading it.
Dear RhondaL -
Stop blushing. Just keep writing interesting stuff.
When you interest me who does not know horsemanship from raising rabbits -
I am telling you – you have something to say!
Hopefully the worst is over and I can stop annoying my son who has only a bad cold.
But what’s a mother to do? Annoy. It’s our job.
Oh, Jonathan – I envy your resolve. No news for 25 years?
I am a totally addicted news/political junkie.
I try to follow Dr. Andrew Weil’s advice to at least not to look at the news after 6 PM – a good idea I believe.
Sometimes, I succeed. Working on it. Thanks for the reminder. We can’t do much about it anyway.
Why is it called swine flu? Is that more romantic than pig? At the moment it seems less virulent than the flu epidemics which come each year and kill so many more vulnerable people than has the current frightener.
For anyone who has watched British TV I would like to remind you of the character Corporal Jones of the Home Guard in the comedy show called Dad’s Army set in WWll. At any stressful moment Jonesie runs about waving his hands in the air shouting, ‘Don’t panic! Don’t panic!
Hi Chris -
“Why is it called swine flu? Is that more romantic than pig?”
At least pig flu would rhyme.
I never saw the Dad’s Army show but it sure sounds like what was happening – especially last week. It was the only thing on the news and was pretty scary.
I feel sorry for the Mexicans and their economy. I have been there so many times. This poor country really depends on tourism.
But, as a former travel agent, I can tell you people have extremely short memories. As soon as this quiets down everyone will get on a plane and fly back down.
Maybe it will slow down the drug traffic. Hope so.
Dear Corinne, Has anyone commented on how this virus was started? Do you all know of the inhumane way pigs are bred
in Mexico? To think that Sinclair Lewis wrote a book about
this a very long time ago.. I read it at the behest of my gtanddaughter who was reading this book as a school home-
work. She refused to eat any pork after having learned that
things had not changed at all since Sinclair Lewis’ book was
published.I saw newsreels of pigs jammed into cages so tight
they began to eat the tails of the ones in front of them.
\They had no room to turn around, sit down, scratch themselves
etc. and being an intelligent animal..the mental stress drive
them mad, destroyed their immune system and allowed this virus
to develop.No pig grown for food ever gets to see sunlight,
step on grass, or even gets to lie down to sleep.The Society
for The Humane Treatment of Animals has been fighting these
facrories for years. It’s heartbreaking! Louise Bove
Oh for cryin’ out loud … If I die, I die.
I applaud the sentiments for better conditions for livestock. It’s just a matter on money. If we pay more we can have free range eggs, and pork from happier pigs. Right now many people are opting for free range as a choice. The supermarkets will take notice if the buyers persist.
Dear Lily Rose -
If you die I will kill you! We need you around to keep us on the straight and true!
Dear Louise -
Your comment was heartbreaking to read. No one is talking about the predicament of the poor animals.
It is torture of one of God’s creatures. And the viruses are so more readily spread under these conditions.
Perhaps this overcrowding will spur some movement to allow more humane treatment.
I hope so. Your comment was a real wake up call. Everyone should read it.
Hello Chris -
I make it a point to buy free range eggs and chickens – when I eat chicken. The price is not so much higher.
Of course I am not feeding a large family.
If I ate more meat I would do the same. Somehow, I have lost my taste for red meat and pork. No particular reason. Just does not appeal lately – and it has nothing to do with the swine flu or all the reports of mad cow.
Fish appeals to me more. But I do enjoy eggs!
The fault therein lies with the insatiable greed of the American people — it is simply not right to eat the amounts of meat that this county consumes. Use a little for flavoring like the Asian countries do.
If we all have the Divine in us – of course they do too.
I do not have a problem eating meat … but I have major problems on what they do to meat. Use it sparingly and buy organic from Whole Foods or a source like that.
Maybe our “health care problems” are our OWN responsibility and not the governments. What the hell ever happened to individual responsibility.
Reflect for just one minute will you on all the plastic bottles, plastic bags and Pampers in all those landfills.
How about all the unnecessary packaging …
Bet you can’t do it for more than 30 seconds without seeng who really is at the root of consumerism on the planet.
US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is of course the old chestnut that if all insect life on the planet died the world would end in 50 years. If all human life died the planet would flourish in 50 years. It’s probably true.
We have wandered off the topic a bit but hey..!
@Chris -
Not off topic at all. This is a personal growth blog. If we are all dead how can we grow?
Alarming report in the press yesterday. Bats are dying of a fungus – THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF THEM. They have no idea where it came from.
They eat the insects that destroy crops. So, that is serious.
As usual, Lily Rose – you are right on target.
“Maybe our “health care problems” are our OWN responsibility and not the governments. What the hell ever happened to individual responsibility.”
@Chria @lily Rose @Louise
We are already to old to die young.
This is all about our children and little grandchildren.
Dear Corinne, Lily Rose, Chris, Just had my second cataract
done so excuse any mistakes in this impossibly tiny font.When
I consider pigs, I have to realize there is just as much
inhumane treatment of humans that we are dealing with right
now, maybe pigs are inconsequential. How many causes there are
out there, and their order of importance? I feel too old to
help in any cause, too tired. I want to get a rocking chair,
and just sit and consider my own little world, and let nothing
come past my front gate. If it wasn’t for those confounded
skunks that ate all my tulips this year, I could even be happy.
Love to all, Louise
Dear Louise -
First, healing thoughts to you as you recover from your operation. You must be grateful that both eyes are now done.
A thought for you to consider.
You are helping. You write thoughtful and provoking comments on this blog. You make people think.
Perhaps you don’t realize – but thousands of people come here and read your words.
You are important. Please keep contributing. We are too old to be Mother Theresa.
Sorry about the tulips. Go buy a bunch in the supermarket and put them in your living room where now at last you can see them!.
Dear Corinne, I finally found the name of the book I spoke of
about pig factories….The Jungle and it’s by Upton Sinclair.
(not Sinclair Lewis as I had written.) I just wanted to comment on “maybe our health Care problems are our own
responsibility and not the Government’s”. The Government is
responsible for anything that concerns us….very broad
statement…but why else are they there? We elect the
Government to do our will.And if, for example, the swine
flu has been spreading from Mexico, because of the way they
grow pigs for human consumption, why would we import pork
from them, if we do. It’s Mexico we have to do something
about. The drug cartels, #1 problem right now, plus a lot
of problems with immigration, with any food we import from
them, etc.etc. Their Government doesn’t seem to be doing
enough to solve these problems. That’s my impression.
I would shut down the borders in a heartbeat if it were up to me! Long-winded Louuse
Is it not true that we make a law if there is no other way to control something?
Prohibiting things has never worked well – it just enables black markets. That includes people trafficing as well as other illegal things like narcotics. Those of you who live in US might remember prohibiting things like alcohol. What you got was a healthy BM trade and a country living double standards.
If anyone worries about how animals are reared or crops are grown then boycott the bad and support the good. It’s the power of market forces. Don’t ask governments to curtail more liberties. People in government often don’t know very much about anything. You shouldn’t trust your life to their inexpertise. No really…
Louise — If all I had to worry about were tulips and skunks, I’d be happy. Count your blessings. What a life.
And a pig is a pig is a pig whether swine or human. We are all part of the same system and all divine …It seems that so many Americans don’t care about other humans but do care about animals, I call that a good start.
Corinne, I love your new look – you just keep getting better all the time. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that you get more comments on your blog than Deepak Chopra …………… hmmmmmmmmmmm… didn’t you give him his start too?
Like Neal Walsh (cannot stand men with 3 names) also Andrew Harvey and Andrew told me how much you helped and coached him in his beginning. I have it in writing in the note he gave me to give to you last week !!!!
I wonder if your readers know just how many of those personal growth people you interviewed and helped … hundreds… including me.
There have to be literally millions now that have been touched by your intreviews and all those “gurus” that you had on your show when they were new and scared.
Countless.
Dear Lily, My original point was that (or so I have heard), the inhumane treatment of pigs was the reason the swine flu
virus developed. I think the government should be interested
in that, don’t you? Yes boycotting is a good way to deal with
my concerns, but I would hope the solution would come on a
higher level than that. You can’t get the flu from eating pork, so pork lovers can hardly be counted on. But if everyone
is sick of the debate, I’ll shut my pie-hole about it.
Dear Corinne, I know how violated you feel. There IS evil in
the world.Sorry for your trouble, but look how lucky you are
to have such friends to help you!!Love, Louise
Twitter: joubess
June 13, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Hi Corinne,
I’m behind on reading, and since mid-May, H1N1 is infecting a large area of the Southern Hemisphere, where it is now winter and therefore flu season. WHO declared a level 6 full-blown pandemic. Older folks seem to have some immunity to the new virus, probably from surviving the 1957 pandemic.
The origin of H1N1 isn’t Mexico or completely from pigs. It is made up of RNA from two swine viruses, a human virus and an unknown avian flu virus. When it infected a Wisconsin teen in 2005 it became a new virus.
See Newsweek article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/195692
Worrying isn’t what we need to do. This isn’t Ebola, it’s the freakin’ flu. We need to wash our hands, eat properly, take care of ourselves, and get our flu shots when they are available in the fall. If you come down with it, go to the doctor early. The anti-virals really do help you get well faster and keep you from getting as sick.
First symptoms are fatigue and scratchy throat followed in ~12 hours with a high fever (101-104 F). You do not usually get a cough before the fever hits. Flu is not a nasal infection (it is a lung infection) so you should not have nasal symptoms early on. Those may come if you get a secondary viral or bacterial infection a few days after the fever starts.
I speak from personal experience and have had a lot of flu. I have asthma and even with a flu shot I’ve still gotten it. Flu is not similar to a cold (not even a really bad one), so if you don’t have a high fever you don’t have the flu.
Stay well, and remember to get in line for those flu shots!
Sherri
.-= Being the Change I Wish to See – Sherri´s last blog ..Domestic Terrorist Attack on Arkansas Military Recruitment Center =-.
Dear Sherri -
This the best explanation I have seen.
You should wrote the copy for all those TV medical gurus who come on all the time.
Thank you!