Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night to intestinal violence, and I spent the day in bed. Even worse than the intestinal stuff were the body aches and the dizziness. I literally slept nearly all day.

I’m usually always on the go, so getting this sick not only made me feel crappy, but it also messed with my way of being. But after the first several hours of being bed-bound, I embraced the day and allowed myself to really, deeply rest.

Gwennie, Maya (kitty), and I spent the first half of the day in bed. Gwennie alternated between looking at books, playing with her new sea animals, and using my laptop for the playhouse disney and pbs kids’ games. She was also my little nurse, filling my water bottle and fluffing my pillows. Now and then, Gwennie would bop off to the playroom, but she’d come back and check on me. Maya and I slept and slept. For Maya, a day in bed with her favorite person was clearly the best day ever.

Until Reg got home at 1:30, I only got up to fix Gwennie lunch. When I got to the kitchen, it was clear that she’d been doing her five-year-old best to take care of herself. There were bowls of grapes and Sponge Bob crackers on the table, along with a can of ginger ale (Gwennie loves pop–she sneaks it whenever she can).

Reg got home and shortly after, Mira got off the bus. She stopped in to tell me about the day’s girl-drama at recess and to poke at the lazy kitty, but then they all left me alone to sleep some more. Reg fixed an early dinner for himself and the girls before he left for his five-o-clock final. After dinner, the girls and I watched two episodes of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and laughed our heads off.

So even though I was poopy, achy, dizzy, and whiny, today was one of the calmest days I’ve had in a long time. I’m usually so overscheduled (for example, I don’t have a free evening until like May 22), and I work out five days a week, and I never sit down during the day. My father always said, “You’re burning daylight” if he saw one of us loafing. I still can’t stand the sound of the television during the day. In other words, I’m always doing something.

Today I did nothing. All day. I cancelled everything, and I went to sleep. My body is still achy and dizzy (thankfully, not still poopy), and I’m still whiny, but there was something really relaxing about just giving over to the sickness, about not fighting it or working through it, but just surrendering completely.

I wonder if I’ll be sick again tomorrow?