What Causes 99,000 Deaths and is Largely Preventable?

This is a scary thought. 99,000 deaths every year that are preventable: CLICK HERE:


CAUSES OF DEATH:

It is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States, responsible for an estimated 99,000 deaths per year. It is largely preventable and hits you when you’re down.


It is health care-associated infection. You get it when you go to the hospital for treatment, but end up with the added problem of a life-threatening infection.


According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of these health care-associated infections (HAI),


32 percent are urinary tract infections
22 percent are surgical site infections
15 percent are pneumonia (lung infections)
14 percent are bloodstream infections

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)


An infection is considered to be an HAI if it develops at a hospital or other patient care facility if the patient did not have it prior to treatment. It is a global crisis affecting both patients and health care workers. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at any given time, 1.4 million people are suffering from HAI, and the risk in developing countries is 2 - 20 times higher than in developed countries.


Such infections often lead to longer hospital stays, increase the likelihood of readmission, and add considerably to medical costs.


SWINE FLU (H1N1) PANDEMIC


The current swine flu (H1N1) pandemic and the increased incidence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), also referred to as a "super bug," are fueling public concern for how medical facilities will work to prevent HAI and how they will be held accountable.
We take it for granted that surgical teams will scrub up prior to surgery. But during the course of a hospital stay, we can quickly lose track of the number of health care workers, other hospital staff, and visitors in and out of our room. It is almost impossible for a patient to monitor. We must assume that the people entrusted with our care are washing their hands between patients and after touching materials that may spread infection. Sometimes we're assuming too much. Yet it is this simple act of hand washing -- something we take for granted -- that is the single most important thing we can do to cut down on the spread of HAI.


Hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities must take the steps necessary to educate ALL staff regarding HAI. It is not only a tremendous financial drain on our already overburdened facilities, it is a matter of life and death -- mostly preventable death. The following video, from The Department of Health and Human and Services, Centers for Disease Control, educates patients on simple steps they can take when in a hospital.V

The single most important thing you can do is always wash your hands, when coming home from being in the public.

People do not realize they need also to keep up their immune system. It is the single most important thing that you can do.

http://cheryl.my4life.com/shopping/default.aspx

Are Networkers Really Using Outdated Tools to Attract Marketers?

Are you honestly telling me that there are neworkers out there still using outdated principles in attracting network marketers to their MLM Primary Business? Working diligently everyday and calling from a cold callers list that we pay alot of money for does not work. The myth that every no is closer to a yes, just does not ring true. If you are not attracting like minded individuals to your opportunity you will never bring in quality people into your organization. You have to brand yourself as a successful entrepreneur with exceptional knowledge on how to build your business and share your success with others. You must have a target market where people understand the particular business that you are in and people will get to know you as a professional, someone they can learn from and look up to.



I have a personal favorite Larry Beacham. He went from being a cable guy employee, to a successful entreprenur and I would like to share his wisdom with you. CLICK HERE:

For some strange reason that I don't understand, there are a lot of people that want to fight and resist the implementation of systems to generate business. The defenders of cold calling and pre-historic prospecting techniques do so because they're either afraid of change or not growing mentally.

If I want to travel from Columbus to Toledo, the choices that I have to get there are to walk, ride a bicycle, or roll in a vehicle. All of these transportation methods will work, but it is ridiculous to argue that walking 200+ miles is superior to riding a bike or riding in a vehicle for all the obvious reasons.

Prospecting and cold calling methods are "effective," but at what expense? Someone argued that it is vital to your business to pound the pavement or make cold calls to get success no matter what technology has to offer.

That's like saying that no matter how fast a car travels or how efficient it is, it is still necessary to walk some if not most of the way to Toledo. I'm laughing right now just thinking about that foolishness.

Here are 4 self-marketing strategies to consider that generate targeted leads nearly effortlessly:

EZINES/ARTICLE SUBMISSION: I submitted just 10 articles to a popular ezine website and here were the results - Article Views: 259; Conversions: 22; Time investment : 30 minutes. As a prospector/cold caller, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get 259 people to listen to you by phone OR in person in 30 minutes, let alone have 22 of them have serious interest. Also, I didn't have to endure any hang ups or sadistic behaviors because I called or walked in at the wrong time. I endured no sales resistance or rejection. Finally, this is a RESIDUAL strategy that keeps pulling interested leads month after month on its own without my involvement. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - it's free.

VIDEO MARKETING

Here are some stats from my YouTube.com Channel - Videos Uploaded: 43; Video views: 1,703; Subscribers: 92; Time investment: 3-5 hours (one time). The ONLY people who view my videos are those INTERESTED in my content. 92 subscribers says that these individuals have CHOSEN to receive my latest content on a regular basis. Just like article writing, no sales resistance, no rejection. This also is a RESIDUAL strategy that keeps on pulling leads month in and month out on a ONE TIME EFFORT. Did I mention this is free?

BLOGGING: A good friend of mine named Tracey has a blog site that gets 9000 visitors per month and she is an absolute "nobody." She had acquired nearly 300 clients just from this one strategy! No one ever visits that's not interested; no one is ever called that doesn't have interest. No rejection, no waste of time, effort or money here. Not one red cent spent on this strategy and it is also a RESIDUAL marketing strategy. Accept for uploading new content, this is self managed.

WEBINARS/TELESEMINARS: Last Tuesday, I implemented another webinar strategy into my fold which I host once a week for 30 minutes. Here are the results so far - Webinar attendees: 43; Conversions: 4. So, I'm hovering right around a 10% conversion on a total of 1 hour of effort so far (I've had 2 webinars). The funny thing is, only those interested show up! My financial investment? -0- Dollars, -0- cents. No cold calling or prospecting done to get attendees.

This is just a sample of what's possible when you self-market correctly.

I know that old habits die hard, but seriously, stop "walking" everywhere to get to your "destination." Jump into the vehicle known as self-marketing and retire your walking shoes.

http://www.easymlmleadsforboomers.com/

Weight-Loss Rules to Rethink

The holiday season is quickly upon us, all the holiday parties, and festivities that make this season so special. Has anyone thought about losing extra lbs. so after the holiday season is behind us, we are not agonizing over how much weight we gained? Every year millions of Americans think about another New Year's resolution, "I want to lose weight this year," but how many people jump off the wagon by Valentine's Day?


I know I have finally looked at my weight loss situation, and finally got the hang of it, and my New Year's resolution will not be to lose weight this year. At the end of this blog I will show you products that have made a huge difference in my life. I lost 26 lbs with this product and I know you can too.

CLICK HERE:

Let’s see now. Are carbs the source of all dietary evil - or is it fat? Is dairy supposed to be good for weight loss these days, or bad? Is protein’s day in the sun over, or just beginning? And should you be eating and exercising according to your blood type or your Ayurvedic dosha, or just strictly counting calories?

If you feel confused or clueless, it’s no wonder. Every season brings a new weight-loss trend. Infomercials on diet supplements and exercise gadgets promise to help shed unwanted pounds, and we’re bombarded daily with diet and exercise tips - from folk wisdom to the latest medical research - which often seem contradictory or incomplete. With so much weight-loss advice to wade through, many folks simply throw up their hands in despair and decide that they might as well sit on the couch and eat whatever they like.

No surprise, then, that we just keep getting fatter: Nearly 65 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. And the more obese our nation becomes, the greater our collective risk for many deadly and costly diseases, including type two diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and breast, colon and prostate cancers - to name just a few.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are not powerless. We needn’t let our lack of knowledge about nutrition and fitness prevail over our common sense and our desire to live healthy, happy lives. We do, however, need to rethink what we think we know about dropping pounds and keeping them off.

For starters, we can forget about finding instant fixes and miracle cures for what are essentially pathological lifestyle habits. “We must stop falling for the myths that keep us fat and perpetuate an endless cycle of weight loss and gain,” says Mark Hyman, MD, former long-time co-medical director at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, and current editor in chief of the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.

As much as we all might like the idea of a “magic bullet,” most experts agree with Hyman that healthy, sustainable weight loss doesn’t come from extreme measures or single-faceted diets. Nor does it come from relying on heavily marketed low-fat or low-carb foods and diet drinks (which, in fact, have been shown to hinder weight-loss efforts by messing up metabolism, contributing to cravings and undermining energy levels).

If you really want to lose excess weight and keep it off (or if you just want to maintain your current weight and stay healthy for the long haul), start by putting aside any worries about your love handles or saddlebags. Instead, start focusing on the space between your ears. Any weight-loss misconceptions or misinformation harbored there could present a real danger to your weight-management success.

http://cheryl.my4life.com/shopping/categoryview.aspx?cid=72

How To Be A Successful Online MLM Distributor (And Be YOURSELF, Too

Honestly, this man David Woods is someone to be admired. He actually made $18,513.00 in just three (3) days using this technique, article marketing. How can you not be awestruck just looking at that number? This is of course not a quick get rich scheme you see all over the internet. I would like to share his wisdom and how he actually did it. CLICK HERE:


Quite frankly, there are a lot of positives and negatives to building MLM organizations online, and many people don’t understand what it really takes to prosper in a company using technology to market themselves.


I got started in the MLM profession 7 years ago and I went through five years of painful business building experiences because I was taught how to do things that didn’t jive with my personality. Basically, I was told repeatedly to build lists of my friends, family and associates, but the problem was that I’m just not that social of a person. Don’t get me wrong, I do like to have fun and be with friends (and I do enjoy talking on the phone), but my relative group of friends has always been small.


So how does a person who enjoys alone time and doesn’t like hanging out in shopping malls and business networking events build a massive downline by using warm market lists? Well, they either change their personality or they just don’t do it, that’s how. It just so happens that I like myself… (Should I change my whole personality just to build a business?)


…So after 5 years, I actually figured this warm market thing out and built a massively successful group, but it just wasn’t me. Personally, flying all around the world doing meetings five nights a week just isn’t my definition of abundance, and that’s not what I wanted to create. So I needed a different way where I could still sponsor massive amounts of distributors without changing who I was.


People would always say ‘be duplicatable’ but you know what? I didn’t have ANY success until I decided that was complete crap and started doing things my own way. In fact, I’m so positive about MLM duplication being full of poo that I made this killer YouTube video explaining why:


That’s where learning how to run online MLM marketing campaigns comes in. Rather than building a list of friends and family, you can leverage yourself through creating a tidal wave of social interactions that happen automatically, 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. For example, last month I had more than 30,000 visitors to my websites. I don’t think there’s any way that I could create that kind of exposure offline without paying an arm and a leg for traffic, and I certainly couldn’t do it by wandering around in Safeway…


So how do you enter the online world of MLM and become successful? It’s simple. All you’ve got to do is learn how to provide legitimate, lasting value to as many people as possible, and people will be attracted to working with you automatically, (you’ve just got to learn how to create massive exposure, and everything else is easy).


It’s as simple as that. For myself, I learned that I had gained an incredible amount of knowledge during my time offline building my business that translated into solutions to problems people were having online, so I took that knowledge and I conveyed it by writing articles, making videos, and sending empowering emails to people who subscribed to my list. Within two months, my phone was ringing off the hook all day and night with people who wanted to work with me. (I thought this was much cooler than hotel meeting…)


So ask yourself the question: What value can you provide that will set you apart? What are your strengths? Are you analytical? Do you know how to manage your time extraordinarily well? Do you know how to do powerful presentations or are you better at writing? How can you market your business and ENJOY yourself, too?


Knowing who you are is half the battle. Find your strengths and make a plan to expose the online world to the power of YOU, and you’ll go in the right direction, and get there faster than you can imagine.


If you feel like you don’t have any value to provide, you just haven’t yet discovered your strengths, that’s all.


I have a special gift for you from a friend of mine, Mark Yarnell that I’m going to post up on my blog over the next couple of days. If you don’t know Mark, he’s earned more than $30,000,000 in the MLM profession over the last 20 years and he’s written several bestselling books. Mark’s going to come on my blog as a special guest and reveal what it ACTUALLY takes to build a massive MLM business, and the best part?


It doesn’t matter at all what your personality is. What matters is that you have a clear vision, that you’re willing to work, and that you have a MENTOR who can guide you with your strengths to reach the heights of success that you’ve always dreamed of. Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t be a wimp about life and succeed online in your MLM at the same time. MLM is not going to work for people who are lazy and afraid to take massive action.


However, marketing my MLM business online has truly been a blessing, and it has been a revolution in the way that I operate. I’ve been sponsoring 2-4 people every day into my company, with less effort than I’ve ever exerted to sponsor 2-4 people in a week… (and I’m just getting started). The simple fact is that online marketing isn’t just a good way to market my business, it’s the BEST possible way for ME.


However, we need to remember that this style of marketing isn’t for everyone. Some people will do dramatically better by sticking to traditional approaches, and some people just can’t stand technology. FIND YOUR STRENGTHS and build your business in a way that is attractive and FUN for YOU. I know that that flies in the face of the whole ‘be duplicatable’ philosophy, but have you EVER met an MLM leader that was living the lifestyle you’ve always wanted that was actually a duplicatable person? I never have, and I probably know a lot more MLM leaders than most of you.


ALL of them found a way to sponsor LOTS of distributors and ALL of them did it differently. Funny enough, 90% of them preach ‘be duplicatable and you’ll make it’. (But haven’t you tried that already?)


Those are the thoughts for today my friends, have a great day and we’ll talk again soon. Look out for my exclusive interview with Mark (this is just awesome). If you want to learn how I sponsor people with zero resistance, rejection, without talking to stupid cold leads all day, maybe online marketing will work well for your MLM, too.


http://www.easymlmleadsforboomers.com/

David Wood's Recommended Internet Marketing Toolbox

You started your MLM Home Business in order to achieve financial security in your retirement years. You ask yourself why it is, that it isn't giving you your financial freedom that you expected and so deserve.

My friend and mentor David Wood's has some recommendations to get your network marketing business on the road to success. CLICK HERE:

Here’s My Personal ‘Must Have‘ Internet Marketing Tool-Box:

Here on this page you’ll find a recommended list of resources that I personally use. I take this page very seriously, and you will not find anything on here that I don’t personally use at least several times per week. My goal is to eventually have EVERY SINGLE useful product that I personally use listed here, along with a video explaining exactly how I use it.

ALL of these tools have been well researched and are the best in their class, and they come with the highest recommendation. So without any further introduction, let’s begin:

MLM Lead System Pro:

The first thing that you need to create if you’re marketing your business like a professional in the MLM industry is your own personal Attraction Marketing System that brands YOU as the leader. There’s a lot of systems out there, and out of all of them I have to say that the very BEST is MLSP Pro. Really, there isn’t any comparison. The difference between MLSP Pro and all of the other systems out there is that when you design your system with MLSP, it looks to your prospects like YOU DESIGNED the entire system. I personally use this lead system to generate more than 50 leads per day through search engine marketing strategies, and I earn thousands of dollars in additional cash flow through the built in affiliate programs. Quite frankly, if you’re trying to build an MLM business online without it, you’re crazy.

http://www.easymlmleadsforboomers.com/

Automatic Article Submitter:

Quite frankly, Automatic Article Submitter is the BEST article software that exists on the internet. Article marketing, as you know, is my absolute favorite marketing strategy, and I use it to drive 95% of my website traffic. Simply put, if I didn’t have it, there is no way I would have been able to get 10,000 visitors to my main marketing website in it’s first six weeks. Look, I’ve used almost every article submission and creation software out there at one point or another, and I’ve used ALL of the main ones… There is simply NOTHING on the internet that is remotely close to as powerful as AAS, there is definately nothing as simple to use, and there is no other software that can do everything that this can, all rolled into one… If you are marketing your business online, click on the picture above and get the software right now, because it will absolutely blow your current traffic out of the water – I personally use this EVERY SINGLE DAY for my own business, and you should get it right now if you don’t have it already. After my first 5 weeks on a brand new website, I had 5,000 unique visitors, mostly from a strategy involving using this software. In the next week, I got 5,000 more visitors in ONE WEEK, making a total of 10,000 unique visitors in my first six weeks of using this software. Quite frankly, I can’t recommend it enough. Get it. To learn how I use Automatic Article Submitter, watch my video tutorial on Article Marketing, Module 2.

Traffic Geyser:

Video marketing is cool in a few different ways. First, the search engines index new videos in like five minutes. What that means is that if you put a piece of content out there via video, people can find it in Google searches FAST. To really use video marketing right, you need a way to get your content all over the internet fast, because manually uploading your videos to 20-30 sites isn’t just boring, it’s a waste of your time as an entrepreneur. Basically, Traffic Geyser streamlines the process by uploading your video to more than 30 videos sites, then it places automatic social bookmarks all over the internet pointing back to your videos, it automatically posts your videos on as many blogs as you’d like to ad, and it converts your video into a PodCast and updates about 10 podcast sites… Essentially what that means is that you create a video and in about 10 minutes you have 50-70 instantaneous backlinks to whatever it is your promoting. I’ve got a word for that kind of technology, and it’s ‘Badass’. All jokes aside, get Traffic Geyser and try it for a month. Make a blog post or write an article every day and make a short video (30 seconds) announcing your blog post and broadcast it with Traffic Geyser with a link back… If it doesn’t multiply your traffic by five times, cancel it before you’re charged, because you get a free month. Also, if you haven’t read it, check out my Awesome Traffic Geyser Strategy.

My Article Network:

My article network is the ‘Top Secret Blog Network’ that I’ve mentioned in a couple of my posts. I use this tool in combination with Automatic Article Submitter and it greatly enhances the long term effectiveness of the strategy. Essentially, I copy the same articles that I create with the Automatic Article Submitter, and then I paste them into my article network, and the service distributes the articles through the exclusive network gradually for as long as they remain in the system. Look, this doesn’t produce ridiculous, fast results like Article Submissions with AAS does. What this product is great for is keeping your website at page 1 rankings once you get there through the other article marketing strategies I mention. I have some articles that have been distributed to more than 400 different blogs through this service, and it just increases in effectiveness with time. This is one of THE BEST tools on earth to permanently increase your rankings and social web presence. Watch out for a video that I’m going to make in the next day or two that’s going to explain how I use this tool. It’s awesome.

eZs3 Video Hosting:

At some point in your business, you’re probably going to want to be producing your own private training videos that are exclusive to your site. To really take advantage of video marketing, you need to have excellent loading speeds, and it helps to have something simple to use. Out of all of the video hosting services out there, eZs3 is the BEST. This is not for the novice marketer, as most people just starting out have no need for this sort of thing. This is for the serious entrepreneur who wants to have their business STAND OUT from the crowd. This is the same hosting that all of the online MLM leaders use to create their professional videos, including Jonathan Budd, Norbert Orlewicz, Brian Fanale, Myself, and others. If you’re creating your own training content, get it. You’ll be glad you did. Click Here To Learn More About eZs3 Video Hosting.

http://www.easymlmleadsforboomers.com/

Fight the Flu – The Missing Link Nobody Talks About

Here is another health blog brought to you by the Queen of Nutrition Ann Louise Gittleman. This is by far the most important piece and everyone should take this into account when trying to fight the flu.

Sleep Is Critical to Healthy Immunity.

People exposed to a respiratory virus are three times more likely to get sick if they get less than seven hours of sleep at night, a recent study finds. Trouble is most Americans only sleep about six and a half hours—one hour less a night than we slept in the ’50s.

News from scientists at the University of Chicago and at NIH in Washington DC is even more sobering. We actually need nine and a half hours of sleep at night for at least seven months out of the year—preferably between October and June—for healthy immunity.

“Maintaining the immune system may be the reason sleep has evolved,” explains Brian Preston, PhD, a researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute. Mammals that sleep the longest have six times the immune cells as those that sleep less.

Besides fighting the flu, nature’s “missing link”—sleep—helps your immune system ward off diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and severe depression. Lack of sleep even disturbs normal brain activity and vision, causing over 100,000 car accidents a year.

Now that we’re plugged in 24/7 with our iPhones and iPods, who wants to sleep when you can check your emails, chat with friends, and text the world—anytime of night? Talk about unremitting stress!

When we turn our clocks back next week to end daylight savings, we also disturb the body’s internal clock. This throws off our natural sleep-wake cycle and impacts hormones like cortisol and melatonin that influence this critical “missing link.”

Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:

The most dramatic event humans have experienced happened less than 80 years ago. Electricity and bright lights at night have changed us forever.

When it’s dark, the body naturally produces the hormone melatonin to ready your system for sleep and help you snooze through the night. Five times stronger than vitamin C, melatonin is a potent antioxidant that controls immunity.

What to Do?

Exercise outdoors in the sun to boost melatonin. Start dimming lights when the sun goes down to ready your body for sleep. I even wear special amber glasses to knock out the melatonin-blocking rays from blue light.

When I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I use special nightlights that block blue rays. Don’t flick on those strong overhead lights because they’ll zap your melatonin and you won’t be able to get back to sleep. Taking 3 to 15 mg of melatonin a night can also be helpful.

Balance Hormones

Other hormones also impact how well women sleep. Starting in puberty, fluctuating hormone levels make females two and a half times more likely than males to suffer insomnia.

During perimenopause and menopause hot flashes disrupt women’s sleep. (We all sleep more soundly when we’re slightly cool.) Progesterone is the hormone that helps women sleep well in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy—before heartburn, leg cramps, and frequent urination disturb sleep.

Chill Out

Unfortunately, the female hormone estrogen raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Women have higher levels of this stress hormone when estrogen rises during their menstrual cycle—but progesterone helps even cortisol out and improves sleep.

It’s important to relax at night for sound sleep—so turn off those scary news stories about swine flu. I also recommend Adrenal Formula to combat stress in today’s 24/7 lifestyle.

The Bottom Line

Stack those Zzz’s to stay healthy—especially in cold and flu season when your immune system needs all the help it can get. Take 400 mg of Magnesium before you go to bed. I rotate between melatonin, tryptophan—the precursor for relaxing serotonin—and magnesium.

Sources:

http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=632118
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19840243
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/22-new-theory-about-why-sleep-maintain-immune-system

http://cheryl.my4life.com/shopping/categoryview.aspx?cid=68

Another View of the Flu

posted by Wendy Strgar Oct 26, 2009 1:10 pm

The fear of the swine flu epidemic is gradually being replaced by the reality of it landing at home. I am not proud to admit that my children were the first to be diagnosed at their school in the first weeks of school and the last weeks of our Oregon Indian summer. As the final days of warm sunny weather teased, my children lay in bed too sick to notice. Thus far we have been through three versions of the swine, and the varied symptoms have taken on the colloquial “he’s swining big time” as all of their friends fall like dominoes to the illness. And although most of October is a blur of home remedies, I am relieved to not be worried about getting it anymore.

This is not to make light of the rare cases in which immune deficiency has real and frightening costs. There are enough exceptions to the typical swine course and an alarming number of secondary infections that warrant careful attention. Still, with the continuous mass media warnings and the mass of flu shots being distributed without full testing, it is easy to see how panic can build.

Treating this new illness with love, which is to say the opposite of fear, might provide some insights and maybe even make the experience a teacher. This flu infection moves fast and goes into the chest deeply. This is a time to protect and love the immune system by applying all of the standard wellness advice about eating well, sleeping enough and getting regular exercise and fresh air. Supplementing with multi-vitamins, Vitamin C and Vitamin D3 as well as herbal formulas like Echinacea is another effective way to support your immune system. My three favorite natural remedies for this flu which were really effective for all my kids included Nature’s Way Umcka (preferred flavors were cherry and berry), Boiron’s Oscillococccinum homeopathic formula, and Wellness Formula. For the record, I have never gotten any free bottles of these products for all the support I give them–they just work.

Yet, even with all the remedies I had on hand, once in the system, the flu progressed and all my kids got sicker. Their fevers spiked high for the first couple of days and our home became the center of life again in the way it is on holidays. The schedule was off, no one was going anywhere and they all wanted company and assurances. It had been years since I lay in bed for an afternoon nap with any of my children as they are all in their teens, but this week the swine flu had us in bed falling asleep in the early afternoon light of autumn.

I welled up with the tenderness of the moment, as I lay next to my son, his hand in mine, and reflected that this might well be the last time I held my adolescent son’s hand as he fell asleep beside me. Even my high school senior had all his hard edges soften as we went through several linen changes per day. He was contemplative and wanted to share his thoughts, giving me a chance to hear him as I hadn’t in months. My youngest daughter curled around me and held onto me like an anchor to life through her feverish nights.

Don’t get me wrong, the swine flu is a tenacious and lively virus. It takes days after you are well to really get over it and doing too much can easily lead to relapse, but given its proper respect, this flu can also put things in perspective.

Dealing with any illness forces you recognize that the central axis of life is health. There really is nothing else that life can give us or that we can give it, without the amazing and often taken for granted experience of well being. The day my 13-year-old son left the house again after five days of confinement, he exclaimed at the color of the trees, the bigness of the fields and skies. It was like watching him see it for the first time. Illness reorganizes our priorities and focuses our attention on the pieces of life that matter most. The tenderness of life is always right next to us. Illness sets that tenderness apart, holds it up to the light of day. If we are lucky we don’t just get well, we get fresh eyes to see how well we really are.

For more on H1N1, see the Care2 Swine Flu Project.

http://cheryl.my4life.com/shopping/categoryview.aspx?cid=68