For the birds

"This is for the birds!" That's what I was thinking when I decided to post this picture today to communicate that I have been under the weather all through this sunny summer weekend. I wonder where that saying originated?
These birds were photographed on Sanibel Island when I was visiting there. I was amused by the random way they were milling around on the beach, all dressed up in their fancy-shmancy feathers.
I cope poorly with being ill, even an illness as transient as the one I have now- some virus that will be gone in another 24 hours. I fret that I am unable to accomplish the things I had planned to do, regardless of whether they were work or fun. Instead of just settling back calmly, accepting that this temporary illness will pass and letting my immune system do all the work while I encourage it with juice and chocolate, my inner (Western) voice prattles on about "wasting a day" and "should have done this or that". It is so hard for us to just be. I wonder how difficult it must be for people who, due to real illness, gradually lose the ability to do anything. We, or at least I, define ourselves by what we do and what we produce. Just being doesn't seem like enough. But for me today, it will be; it needs to be. More chocolate, please.