In Sickness and In Health

Sickness and Health. What do they mean? Health, when everything is running smoothly, operating as intended. Literally it is the state of being free from sickness or injury. Sickness then in turn is the opposite of health, when things are not running as intended, the state of being ill. Truth is, we are constantly in some way in the state of being ill. None of us have achieved perfect physically, emotional, and mental health. We are sick.

This whole sickness and health thing has gotten me all worked up for a couple of different reasons.

I literally pulled 10 dead fish out of the fish tank yesterday morning before work. Seriously, I was a crazy lady pulling dead fish off of a filter and scooping up the live ones to take them to a fish hospital to see if they could be saved. Yes, a fish hospital…I know, my husband has already made fun of me. And what’s worse, I was a little emotional when I left. It’s not about the fish ok, it was just a very stressful morning, and I really don’t like to see anything suffer. We have 15 fish, and it seems as though 1 sick one that was purchased this weekend infected the rest of the tank. One infected animal killed almost everything in it’s habitat. There are now only 3 survivors. It’s a crazy thing, that the sickness of one can effect so many. But doesn’t it always? When I am sick in any way, be it emotional, physical, or mental everyone in my habitat are certainly effected.
I’m watching a friend of mine take care of her husband after a terrible accident. Now, he will get better. But in the mean time, she’s taking care of him. He’s confined to a couch or with assistance, and wheelchair, and I watch her do it gracefully. I only hear her side of course, I’m sure sometimes she’s frustrated, tired, maybe even short. But, she loves her husband deeply and that love is shown and worked out in her care for him. When I asked her she said “you see your husband hurting or struggling, and you just do whatever you need to do, whatever you can to help, you don’t even think about it.” That’s love. I’m a terrible care taker, really, terrible. And my husband is THE BIGGEST winey baby when he is sick. I’m so not a good care taker when he is sick, mostly because he get’s on my nerves, he is SO PITIFUL! I’m better with my kids of course, but even when they are super sick and they want to lay on you with their hot sweaty heads, trapping you, coughing in your face, it’s like I will never escape, like I will be in this sweaty prison FOREVER! What makes it worse, I totally want someone do dote on me when I’m sick. Yes, I know…This makes me THE WORST

The thing is, love is all about how well we show love in sickness. Love when everything is operating as it should, or so we think, is easy. Sickness is hard and these are the instances when we are too quick to walk away. We have to put ourselves aside, realize we have our own maladies, and love through it. We have to overlook what should be overlooked, help to heal what needs to be healed, and show love either way. In sickness, that is where real love is exercised, and where real character is formed.