"Better Days" and Chief Grape. Picture taken in Sicily. Meet with Jean-Marc in DC & VA this coming March 10th-11th-12th or during his 2012 US wine tour
se reposer (reuh-poh-zay) verb
Verb conjugation: je me repose, tu te reposes, il/elle se repose, nous nous reposons, vous vous reposez, ils/elles se reposent (past particile = reposé)
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
The Flu and The Blues
"Repose-toi bien, Maman. Je te vois à midi." That was my son, Max, who stole past my bed, on his way to swipe a pair of his father's socks. I am so far behind on laundry….
Lying here with la grippe, I wonder how much farther behind I'll fall… if I stay in bed another day? In my mind's eye, I see papers stacked high on a desk, emails filling an inbox, dishes that need putting away–and a couple of teenage girls who might like a break from pasta and canned sauce. (Jackie's best friend is here for the week. Every time it is Jackie's turn to stay at her girlfriend's, she returns home to tell me what a magnifique cook the mother is. Every time the friend stays here, I roll up my sleeves in determination. Usually it is skill that foils my plan: this time, au moins, I can blame it on the flu.)
Chief Grape is resting beside me; he is not feeling much better than I. He had the flu last week. This week it is something else. Trop de travail.
Ambition, drive, determination… Do we not sometimes chase after the wind?
Neither of us feels comfortable about being in bed on a work day and, though we lie here silently, I can almost hear that unspoken fear that tortures each of our minds: What if I never get up again?
But rest is needed, encouragement too. I look over at my tortured husband, and borrow my son's caring words: Repose-toi bien, cheri.
Thank you for so many excellent tips on how to be a better listener (previous post); this time would you mind sharing your best tips for feeling better? Advice for easing the flu–or the blues–is appreciated. Click here to leave a message in the comments box.
Note: I am sorry and feel terrible about not being able to respond to every email and inquiry. I appreciate and read each and every note you send; it is a pleasure to read about you and, while reading, I am sending best wishes your way.
French Vocabulary
Repose-toi bien, Maman. Je te vois à midi = rest up, Mom. See you at noon.
la grippe = flu
magnifique = magnificent
au moins = at least
repose-toi bien, cheri = rest well, dear
"Better Days: Version 2"
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If it is available, a bottle of Gatorade a day helps wash away what ails you. But your son’s advice is the very best!
I suspect you already know the best ‘remedy’ for the flu … patience and a positive attitude! The latter, you seem to have in abundance; the former … hmmm, may need work … but what can you do now anyway? Next fall, consider getting a flu shot. They work!
dear kristin; i can’t help but notice now closely this relates to monday’s post! ‘listening!’ listening to one’s body and respecting what it needs is often one of the hardest things to do–the head says we must barrel through and ‘be tough.’ but we are the caretakers of a precious vessel and we must tend to it carefully and with purpose. you are actively ‘taking care’…that’s certainly time well spent.
i hope you feel better soon!
Someone told me that putting Vicks Vaporub on the souls of your feet, covered with sox, will not only help with a deep cough, it will warm you all over and make you feel good. Worth a try, I would say. I hope you and Chief Grape feel better soon. All good thoughts coming your way.
Here’s sending you and Chief Grape best wishes for a full and complete recovery! It’s funny – well meant advice can sometimes feel like a burden or a warm hug. What I’m hearing most in all the posts is the love everyone feels for you and your family. Your writing has opened bridges among all our far flung hearts. I hope you and Jean Marc can bask in the puddles of sunshine we’re sending, cuddle up in the warmth of each other’s company and let go of everything that doesn’t help to make you rested and well. When I was an overworked and stressed grad student, my wise grandfather used to lay his hand on my shoulder – I can still feel it – and tell me that evreything that had to get done would somehow get done. When I’d begin to reflexively protest, he’d remind me to just breathe. Amazing that he knew that. That movie, Shakespeare in Love, always makes me smile for much the same reason: “How?” a character asks when disaster is looming. “I don’t know. It’s a Mystery.”
Nah, it’s not a mystery..it’s a blessing. It’s friends and family taking the time to let you know they’re thinking of you, it’s your son tip toeing through the bedroom so as not to wake you, it’s even your body letting you know that it’s time for self care and rest. So, rest. Somehow what needs to happen will. And the Love that surrounds you will be the rocking hammock that you need.
Feel better soon, Sunshine!
Il ya un produit canadien, “Cold FX”, que je prends quand J’ai la grippe. Ce m’aide beaucoup. Voici le site web, http://cold-fx.ca/francais/index.htm. J’ espere que vous pouvez acheter ce produit en France.
Restez Bien.
Cordialement
David a Halifax
Being sick is the perfect time to delegate everything – to reverse the demands upon yourself. Pull the covers up and pull over – free from the fast lane. I mean why else does it take you out? It seems to rearrange the thought of being in control. I’m going to really say this…. I love being sick – enough that I can escape the demands. A refuge in the gap – one can go deep inside to find a ‘big wisdom’ your body is willing to share with you. I always find some AhHa! inspired behind my lids, buried in my pillows as I hug the illness that’s taken hold.
Hi Kristin and Chief Grape, sorry you aren’t feeling well. Here’s a poem with my remedies.
My BEST remedies for feeling better might not necessarily help for the flu,
but they ALWAYS make me feel better when I’m feeling blue.
Warm chocolate chip cookies ALWAYS work
and a Dairy Queen blizzard is a special perk!
Getting a massage from someone you love,
the trust of His healing from up above.
Vitamin C is a daily must,
prevents your system from going bust!
Exercise and sweating it out,
Doing something for others will get rid of that pout.
French word of the Day is also on the list
of things that make you feel better and shouldn’t be missed.
Cuddle up in a blanket and watch TV,
Jeanie, Bewitched, or your favorite movie.
Friends and family are the best remedy of all,
So when you’re feeling down, just give ’em a call!
Hope you feel better soon!!!
Sandra
My best prescription for the flu is a flu vaccination. If it gets you anyway, ask your doctor for an Rx for Tamiflu (this must be done early in the process), take ibuprofen to get your fever down, plenty of fluids (herb tea is comforting), and as much sleep as possible. Clean pajamas and sheets or at least pillowcases and a warm shower in the evening.
Re: the blues–exercise, sunshine in moderation, doing something for someone else–service is a great antidote to feeling bad about yourself and your life. Best wishes and get well soon–
Lisa
Chère Kristin,
C’est le tour des enfants de vous soigner, toi et Chief Grape. Ils peuvent faire le ménage. Reposez-vous, buvez des tisanes, et dormez, dormez, dormez.
Bon courage,
Edie
Je pense que se reposer est un verbe reflexif, n’est-ce pas?
Donc,
je me repose
tu te reposes
il se repose
nous nous reposons
vous vous reposez
ils se reposent
Sandra….I love your poem! Thanks for sharing
What lovely words of wisdom shared…with such heartfelt wishes and warmth.
Sure to heal you both soon I hope.
Chere Kristin, do put the mental “To Do” lists far away from your thoughts and heart.
I know …so easy to say…so difficult to do.
We also had the flu here recently.
For once I had no choice but to take to bed as you have had to…cozy down comforter and Tylenol, (Dayquil worked well here).. hot tea (will add the whiskey or brandy next time myself).
Let the girls experiment with their own cooking adventures. Perhaps they can even toss in a load of laundry? 🙂
Meditate and reflect on that which brings you joy. Visualize Spring warmth and flowers bursting out in your garden.
Take good care of you.
Hugs and bises from blustery Boulder, CO today and warmest wishes to you both.
Stay in bed and rest until you feel well enough to be up and around. Treat the symptoms with over-the-counter medications. And next year, GET A FLU SHOT!!! 🙂
Well, it’s Ash Wednesday so I went to church and l’eveque said that pain is helpful. The reason lepers were healed by Jesus was so they could feel pain (which leprosy prevents happening since it’s a neurological disease). If you can’t feel pain, you may not know you have something that needs to be treated and perhaps cured. So go with the pain and learn from it. Crying helps the blues. After you’ve cried a while, listen to something “up”. Right now I’m listening to Billy Joel and bopping around some. Guess you should just bop in bed until the flu departs, which it will. Tears work better than beers for shooing away the blues.
Get well soon, all of you! I drink a fizzy concoction called “Emergen-C” and who knows if it helps or not? Blessings~Jen
Water, lots of water, and at night(or middle of the afternoon) mix some hot lemonade with cinnamon and whiskey (as much as you can stand) and then climb under the covers and stay there for as long as your kids will allow! Worked for me every time. Hope you feel better soon!
World’s Best Hot Toddy
bonjour kristen, well, i have to go with Gus, but with a ‘french twist’. i, being a Texan married to a true Gascone living in Napa Valley (yes, he’s a winemaker, aussi), know much about the curative Hot Toddy. However, i have perfected the recette de ma grandmere, and have moved from whiskey to…oui, bien sur…Armagnac!
Voila, La Recette:
boil/simmer 20 minutes:
2″ of ginger root, sliced like quarters
1 quart water (you can keep adding more water and boil again
then, strain 1 cup into favorite large mug
add:
juice of one whole lemon (meyers is best)
a big, ole tablespoon, raw, local honey
a generous-to-personal-taste ton mari’s favorite Armagnac (when he’s not looking because he says to use the less ‘good’ stuff if combining with other things, but NEVER!)
make sure it’s piping hot, and i promise you will feel instantly better…best served after a hot bath. on my worst nights, i might indulge and have two!
Wow! Salut to Tout Le Monde ici! Can only second every wish for the recovery of our Chers Amis, les Espinasses, And WHAT a captivating Community of Care!!
The affection, fun, wgood sense, and healing energy collected in this Comments column has real cumulative power, reaching even moi collapsed with companionable flu, here in Canada. (Y’think those hard c’s can to help drive out the cruel virus …?)
VERY Speedy recovery to all.
Kristi, Hate to hear that you and JM are laid up with la grippe! I’ve been so busy with our move that I’ve been neglecting my friends 🙁 We are finishing up our packing as we have to move out by next weekend. Everything goes in storage until the 16th of March when we load it all in a container to be shipped to Wales. Today is my last day at work (yea!) but I’ve still got loads to do. Still haven’t been approved for my visa yet but am using my faith that all will go well. My advise to you is as all the others have said. Stay in bed and let your body heal itself, as it will do. Stress can make you ill as well so find some ways to channel your stress…remember the yoga?….maybe some meditation. Will be sending some positive vibes your way. Take care!
Hi Kristin, I’m going to skip the advice and simply wish you and Jean-Marc well and a speedy recovery.
Amicalement
Chris
Like all the good advice here, rest, rest, rest. Lot’s of tea and fluids. And next year, maybe the flu shot?
Please get well soon. I know having the flu makes one feel just awful. I highly recommend chicken broth made from scratch, Ibuprofen, lots of water, and change your toothbrushes (so as not to reinfect yourself – just learned that one recently). Your brighten all of our days with your writing, reflections, and sharing, so you know we are all thinking about you. Plus, the children are old enough now to pitch in when you are sick. Frances, Napa, California, USA
reposer bien mes amies.
Wow, what a lot of good, heartfelt advice from your readers. Jackie and Max could make hot lemon water or cold drinks for you and then the good old American standby…pancakes….when you are feeling better. I know that recovery from the dreaded flu cannot be rushed, but I hope you are feeling better as soon as possible. My best wishes.
P.S. …even Smokey,if it’s allowed, could curl up on your comforter and act as a heating pad….
Here’s a New Hampshire Cure: Get an aromatic Liqueur And add Hot water and lemon juice= Cognac or Armagnac will do: Breathe in the vapors and swallow the liquid. Repeat every half hour. If it doesn’t cure the affliction, you probably won.t care after two hours or so!
In any case, hope you get well soon. In the mean time, reposez vous les deux,
Get well soon!
I’m of the Vick’s Vapor Rub on the feet persuasion, accompanied by a hot toddy of your choice! For the blues . . . I struggled with clinical depression for many years and the best medicine I found to combat it was to spend time in praise and worship, even when I felt the complete opposite. Prayers going up for you and the Chief!
poor Kristin and Jean-Marc. please get better soon. rest. focus on getting well.
Give yourself the gift of rest. Take it easy, drink lots of fluids and take naps as needed.
I hope you and you husband feel better soon.
Rest and fluid’s is all you should do, as everyone else says. I just got over having pneumonia for half of Jan and part of my cruise. I took many days off from work since it is hard to care of others when your are sick and weak. You should do the same. Laundry can wait; unless the kids know how to do it. As far as the blues go, hmmm, well it it is hard to feel up when you feel so bad. Just try to think good thoughts and remember many people are out here hoping you feel better soon.
Get Well!
Hi Kristen, I’ve read all these loving comments and if that doesn’t make you feel better I don’t know what will. You bring such joy to so many. We’ll be waiting when you’re ready to get back at it but in the meantime, take your time, Most fondly, Judi in sunny Carmel, CA
Can you get Lemsip in France? It is a powder that comes in packets and that you stir into hot water. It comes from England and it does the job for us. We like the black currant flavor. You are in our prayers.
Blessings, Mary in NM
Dear Kristin, I had ‘flu and bronchitis in January in the middle of a very hot summer in Cape Town – I think the ‘flu lays you low and MAKES you depressed to get you to rest your body and your mind – lots of rest and antibiotics (gasp) for the bronchial infection worked – it took a full 3 weeks and you think you’re never going to feel good again or have any energy ever again but it comes back in spades and life gets back to its lovely normal self, promise.
From one who feels she can barely put one foot in front of the other every morning while bearing the weight of all that I must do (in addition to an extra backpack of all of my regrets of things not done, or done badly), I understand Jean-Marc. I am teaching myself to harness the thoughts and turn them into clouds that simply pass over lightly and are whisked away by a soft, gently breeze.
Further, as one who, when sick, also feels that it will remain the state of affairs in perpetuity, I agree with all the foregoing wonderful and loving advice, Kristin, that you must give yourself PERMISSION to be sick and the recovery WILL come and you will just leap out of bed ready to tackle that laundry and those dishes (well, maybe not), but you will get out of bed at some point 😉
I’m sorry you and Chief Grape are down with the flu. I hope you’re both feeling better very soon. Chicken soup is great medicine, or even just chicken broth. It’s not called “Jewish penicillin” for nothing!
Take good care, get well and stay well.
Connie in Portland
Bonjour Kristin et Jean-Marc: je suis en retard, j’espère que vous allez mieux aujourd’hui. My miracle cure for cold/flu has always been ginger. Du gingembre dans de l’eau bouillie chaude avec du miel et du citron, et il faut en boire beaucoup. Mais surtout, reposez vous bien, vous en avez besoin.
So many posts today. That is what you can do is stay in bed and read all of them. You know, I quite agree with Jules about delegating things. So, it seems that it is time both children learned how to cook the French way. Maybe they already know how, but if not it is time. One day a week they cook with you and after one month they each get two days a month to cook for the family..or if they want to do it together, it is 4 days a month. You can tell Max that a woman loves a man that can cook. I have heard it called YOYO day…..you’re on you’re own day. Get better soon.
Feel better soon! The flu is the pits.
Hey Jules, did you try the vicks on the feet? I just heard about that a few weeks ago and it doesw work…or at least I felt like it worked. That and the tea w/ honey (my own) and lemon. Whiskey didn’t hurt either…quelled the cough for awhile. Our writer friend in St.Louis lives just south of my town (Louisiana) and so it might be a Missouri remendy! Hope Chief Grape & Kristen tried it! Karen
All of the above advice is excellent, especially the sleeping.
Now that I think about it, I’ve gotten flu shots for years, and except for one year when I had what might have been flu, I’ve escaped. Worth a try.
A couple of summers ago I got something that wasn’t exactly flu, I don’t think, but a “bug” that laid me very low. I spent 2-3 days in bed, unable to do much but sleep and fight a temperature and cough. But I was unable to remain asleep all that time, so when I was awake, I re-read “Words in a French Life” – the whole book. It was the only thing I felt like doing, and truly helped me feel better. Kristin and Jean-Marc, if you feel up to reading, you could read posts from the blog over the past few years, or whatever else might appeal to you. And rest. A character in one of Shakespeare’s plays said, “Sleep has knit the raveled sleeve of care.”
To get rid of the “Critters,” Echinacea, reported to be the most widely prescribed cold medicine in Europe. For symptoms, Zinc. As others have already said, but it’s worth repeating, plenty of liquids and bed rest.
Frank