I used to be very paranoid about anyone falling sick in the family – a simple fever or cold was a like a medical emergency for me (I don’t know about the sick person). May be because sickness for me meant slowing down my work and those headaches (specially cold and fever).
But Ratnesh around me was pretty cool – he would talk about the symptoms in detail (maybe influence of his mother who was homeopathic doctor), And the more importantly my sick kids, who are more energetic than me!
I started questioning my own panic. I observed that, when my son is sick he takes rest not medicine. When my daughter used to be sick as a child, she would play hours without any complaints.
Now we live with many kids at the campus in a community and observing each one them, learning from them helped me more than any medicines or care. To my surprise the cold which bothers me a lot, the similar looking cold does not affect the child sitting next to me. I started believing that each one (irrespective of any age) knows self better than anyone else. I stopped worrying about the sickness and started listening to the one who is sick, started spending time in understanding sickness, looking for alternatives, understanding my own beliefs (and myths). Now I am able to relax when anyone falling sick in the community, including myself!