Balancing action with rest

I had a fabulous week last week of attending three (partial) days of the NVIC conference and then all day of “Perinatal: A Symposium on Birth and Reproductive Rights.” But now, instead of volunteering at the Holistic Moms Network table at the Green Festival, I’m home with a slight fever. I don’t feel that bad, but I’m taking the advice of the health gurus I saw at NVIC that when the body is responding to too much stimulus, you need to give it a rest. Plus it wouldn’t be very nice if the germ theory is really true and I get other people sick while I’m talking to them about holistic health!

It’s humbling to be side-lined, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my body went on strike after such little sleep (and some sugar). I ate pretty well, packing in all my food and not buying anything other than a decaf, and I’ve been good about immune-boosting supplements and tonics, but it still was a stressful week. Now I’ve got all day to roll a new batch of chicken stock (and catch up on laundry).

I might not have paid as much attention to my own health as I needed to if my son hadn’t been having a really hard time this morning. He is only a little stuffy and doesn’t seem feverish, but he was really weepy, which prompted me to go up and take my own temp. After one dose of pulsatilla, he seems to be doing better — less weepy and less surprisingly changeable in his moods. I need to buy a homeopathic kit so we have everything on site.

For more on the birth symposium, see my other blogs Crunchy-Chewy Mama on a woman being threatened with a court-ordered c-section instead of what would be a second VBAC and Mama’s Mouth on art as activism.