I spent most of Thursday night coughing on the couch, trying not to bother my family. Friday was a sick day and while I had respite in the late afternoon, I’m back on the couch tonight. When this gets posted in the morning, I hope to still be sound asleep. But I’m not writing about this to seek sympathy.

I just started thinking about my recent post, Adding fuel to the 4 Burner Theory. In that post I talked about taking care of ourselves first, and thus having more to offer. I still believe this. But sometimes you get knocked on your butt and you have no fuel, or battery, to give. For the last week and a half colleagues, students, and my family have all been under the weather, and it finally got me. Other times we have to deal with personal tragedies, or relationship/friendship challenges that rock us.

I just think it so important to acknowledge that sometimes being at our best isn’t our best, because our batteries are low. Like our phones, we sometimes have to put ourselves in ‘low power mode’ and just do the bare essentials until we can get charged again.