Since last week I’ve been house bound. Not out of choice, I must point out. I traipsed off to the office on Monday morning choosing to ignore the fact that I felt a little under the weather and was minus a voice. Oh the horror of not being able to speak; and some of my colleagues were finding this a delightful site to behold.

Long story short, one look at me and our medical team were mortified at the fact that I drove to the office instead of “calling” (read: text or mail) in sick. I tried to offer some sort of defense about it being a Monday blah-blah-blah but they were not interested. Instead, they armed me with the relevant meds, read me the riot (read: wellness act) and sent me on my way.

Chicken soup. Check.

Water. Check.

Fruit. Check.

Chocolate. Check.

Meds. Check.

I was ready for a week of “solitary confinement” and as someone who hardly ever gets sick, I figured this flu/laryngitis wouldn’t last more than three days. Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.

My body felt like it was being panel-beated and I just couldn’t break a stubborn fever. At that point my life seemed like it was a scene from Bridget Jones’s Diary. I couldn’t call anyone (the joys of being a migrant worker). I contemplated texting my neighbour to drive me to the ER but decided against this for two reasons: apart from an initial introduction and one other time I texted to apologise for triggering the alarm, we hadn’t really spoken. So imagine now asking him to be my personal uber? Even my feverish self knew this was a bad idea….

At the first glimpse of daylight, I drove to my GP and she confirmed it was no longer the flu but bronchitis. The good news was that the fever broke, I was given a much stronger antibiotic and my voice had returned but she warned me to “take it easy” because I wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

What’s the point of this post?

The aha-moment was this: words whether spoken, written or unsaid are equally important and define (positively/negatively) our lives more than we realise. More than that, we are emotional and social beings who need each other.

With a new year, a new decade mere days away, may we always choose to open our hearts and mouths… and always choose to express ourselves. That way we will have no regrets, no unanswered questions, lingering thoughts or feel like we can’t reach out for help when we need it most. After all, life is about stepping beyond the confines of our comfort zones and having the courage to speak up and reach out…

I think I’ve said this in a previous post, the reality is that no person is an island… we all need each other in one way or another; rain or shine.

Take care and stay fabulous….