Strange Days

 I can't even pretend to relate to the times that we currently find ourselves in.  Everyone  (and by everyone I'm pretty sure its the global community)  is having to reorient themselves in the face of the Covid 19 pandemic.  We, in the United States, are not doing well.  The why's and wherefores have been examined ad nauseam by all kinds of professionals by now and I am not one of those.  I'm only going to express my thoughts and feelings regarding all of this.

As the alarm bells started sounding in the US, I had only been back from a trip to Italy for a couple of months.  I literally left Venice on the day of the flood in November.  So, when I saw what was happening in Italy, my heart broke.  While I thought that the same thing could happen here, I also thought - well surely not.  We are the US.  We've got this.  As it turned out, we didn't.  Now we are months in and there have been way too many deaths and there is not really an end in sight. 

So, I ping pong back and forth between being depressed, heartsick and lonely to grabbing at the tiny silver linings in an attempt to stay level.  I'm fortunate in that I am retired.  I am fortunate that although I don't get to see them much,  I do get to see my family some.  We are ultra careful.  We space things out.  We don't do one large gathering.  But, they can work from home and their littles are too young to be very adversely effected by the school situation.  I also sparingly see my 92 year old mother.  We are being so very careful of her but, she's hanging in there.  I know that it could be so much worse but, I worry that it still might be ... that someone in my family will get sick, that the entire bottom will fall out of the economy causing my kids to lose jobs, etc.  We are so far from over any of this.  

In an effort to maintain some normalcy, I do the little things as usual.  There are chores, there are tasty things to grow or find at the local farm stand.  There are morning walks and phone chats with friends over coffee.  Sometimes just sitting on the patio with a glass of wine is about as exciting as it gets and yet it is a reminder to be grateful that I have a patio .... and wine.  There are great books, some pretty good television and my own creative pursuits of choice.   I have really had to curtail my news intake.  I am remaining informed, I check once a day for the basics but then, I have to turn it off.  I had to bail out of some social media as I found it angst provoking.  Life is a little calmer without it.  And .... life .... it goes on.

At the end of the day, we all have to do the things that help us cope with this tough, tough situation.  We all long for it to be done.  But, maybe the silver lining is that we are being given an opportunity to figure out what is really important in our individual lives.  I recently heard a quote by Michelle Norris ...

                     DON'T REACH FOR NORMAL.  REACH FOR BETTER