Flu at 73 - Learning to Slow Down in Bosnia

A Life Update

I’ve got flu 🤧

Normally by this time in the morning I’d be out walking four kilometres through the village lanes here in northern Bosnia. But today that simply isn’t happening.

My temperature is up, everything aches, and I’m feeling more out of breath than usual. At 73, that’s something I can’t just brush aside.

It’s not pleasant thats for sure.

Long ago I probably would have pushed through this, after all, I spent nearly thirty years in the army, and back then the mindset was simple: keep going, going, going.

Also thinking back, when I was in my twenties I’d have ignored something like this completely. Even into my forties or fifties I might have tried to power through and keep working.

But getting older forces me to rethink that approach.

Recovery takes longer. The body doesn’t bounce back the way it once did. And somewhere along the line I’m finally realising that listening to my body isn’t weakness, it’s common sense.

So today the walk is cancelled.

Instead, I’m sitting at home drinking English tea (milk with two sugars, and which we used to call “NATO Standard”), and trying to ride this thing out.

To be fair, I’m not the only one. This flu has been sweeping through this part of northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Much of the extended family has had it as well.

As people say here:

Šta je tu je.

It is what it is.