Coughing My Way To Enlightenment

Written by Terri Crosby for In Care of Relationships

I’m sure that’s it.

That must be what I’m doing — coughing my way to enlightenment.

Although I’m much better since the writing of this, thanks to the wonders of colloidal silver (using a nasal spray bottle), in the throes of the worst of it, I wrote just for a little comic relief — like if “life is rigged in my favor” as Rumi says, how could straying from my usual healthy state possibly  be a good thing?

Below are a dozen reasons to show …

Why Enlightenment Is Just Around The Corner for Mwah!

1. I speak less.  While it’s true (twooo, so twoooo) that I can hardly speak without coughing — still, the fact that I”m silent more often means that I’m practically a monk.
2. I live in robes, the outfit of the spiritual leader.
3. I pray more.  (Pleeeeease let my chest, my throat relax now… right now… in this blessed moment.  Thank you.  Amen.)
4. I am baptized daily, submerged in the warm waters of renewal, with salt from the Dead Sea of Epsom.  My bathtub is my new best friend.
5. For about a day, my teeth hurt so I used my jaw less — to talk or eat.  Hey, abstinence and sacrifice and all that!  Doesn’t that count?
6. I sing in my head, not out loud.  I must be really evolved.
7. I have afternoon tea.  I am a lady of luxury.  I have time for tea while doing nothing except look out my beautiful window.  Well, I do hold the hot tea mug to my chest.  That IS doing something.  But go ahead.  Compare your busy schedule to THAT.  ( Wait.  Comparing is not very spiritual, now is it?  But I digress…)
8. I close my eyes more often.  (Sure they hurt.  Sure they sting.  Sure they are red and itchy.  But who’s looking?  No one.  Except the dog.)  So, visually speaking, I AM without a doubt the picture of peace, yes?
9. I have visited the river of sorrow (yep, one day it was that bad) to wash myself clean of all that I no longer need.  Like  mucous.
10. I’ve been taken to my knees more than once this past week.  By coughing.
11. I’m meditating more.  I’m learning to concentrate on my breathing or listen to the grandfather clock ticking. It seems easier to keep the word noise of my mind down a bit.   Before you know it, I’ll be an expert meditator.  All because of coughing.
12. I’m resting more.  I maketh myself to lie down in green pastures.  Actually, I just lie down.  Surely that qualifies.  :–)

You have a fabulous week out there, OK?

Stay healthy!

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For more information about In Care of Relationships, click here.

About Terri Crosby — I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Eric, my partner of 14 years, two cats and a dog, and as many flowers and vegetables as I can plant.

It is my experience that children are born to teach (remind) parents, not the other way around.   I’ve learned more from my daughter MacKenzie than from all other humans combined.

I’m in favor of wandering time in the morning, listening to the birds calling to each other in the woods all around me.

Making fresh food is one of life’s big yummy pleasures, along with singing – especially creating heavenly, improvisational, prayerful, meditational sound.

I believe that poet Mary Oliver writes the best bedtime stories available on Earth.