I have heard the phrase health is wealth countless times. I understood what it meant. At least I thought I did.
Then this week I found myself in hospital, after days of pain, vomiting and sleepless nights. Suddenly my world became remarkably small.
I wasn’t thinking about what needed to be done next week. I wasn’t thinking about the things I wanted to achieve or the places I wanted to go. I wasn’t even thinking very far beyond the next few hours.
I wanted the pain to stop.
I wanted to sleep.
I wanted to eat something and know it would stay where it belonged.
I wanted to feel like myself again.
It is strange how quickly the things we barely notice can become the things we want most. Most mornings, I don’t wake up amazed that I can get out of bed. I just get up.
I don’t usually think about the privilege of walking somewhere, eating because I’m hungry, concentrating on my work or sleeping through the night. When our bodies allow us to do these things without complaint, they become ordinary.
Perhaps that is one of the peculiar things about good health. It can become invisible precisely because we have it.
This week made some of it visible again. It also made me think about three words I use far too easily: I have to.
I have to go to the gym. I have to prepare dinner. I have to do all the things waiting for me today.
For a few days, some of those choices disappeared.
Somewhere between another sleepless night and another hour wishing I could simply feel normal, a different thought arrived. I get to.
I get to exercise and move my body. I get to work at something I care about. I get to walk outside. I get to make plans. I get to travel this beautiful world. I get to show up for the people I love.
None of this means every day needs relentless positivity. Some mornings the alarm really is unwelcome. Some workouts are hard. Work can frustrate us. Life can exhaust us.
Gratitude doesn’t require us to pretend otherwise. Perhaps it simply asks us to notice what is there.
There are people who live with pain, illness or physical limitations not for a few difficult days, but as part of their everyday lives. This week hasn’t given me any claim to understand that experience. If anything, it has deepened my respect for the courage, humour, determination and extraordinary fullness with which so many people live alongside circumstances they did not choose.
There is something profoundly humbling in that.
I’ve spent a lot of my life thinking about what it means to live well. I want to be there for the people I love. I want to serve others. I want to do work that matters to me. I want to see more of this extraordinary world, laugh often, make memories and contribute something useful while I’m here.
This week reminded me that underneath all of those ambitions is something much simpler. The capacity to do them. Taking care of ourselves isn’t the opposite of serving other people. Perhaps it is part of how we remain able to serve them.
We cannot control everything that happens to our health. Life doesn’t work like that. No one can guarantee anything. We can, however, value what we have whilst we have it.
Maybe health really is wealth. Not because it makes us invincible, but because so much of what makes life rich rests quietly upon it.
I don’t think this week taught me something I didn’t already know. Perhaps it simply made me notice again.
Today, I am incredibly grateful for the wealth I already have.
For sleep.
For movement.
For appetite.
For energy.
For people to love.
For work that matters to me.
For another ordinary day.
Especially for another ordinary day.
I’m sharing this simply because it made me stop and think. Perhaps it might do the same for you.
What is an “I have to” in your life today that might, in fact, be an “I get to”?
Nova x