Hi Everyone,
How are you all doing in our lockdown? It is May 11th and we are in Phase 2. We have been shut in since March 26th. People seemed to do quite well in Phase 1 but now the herd is restless. I am too. I do well when the days are warm and it’s not raining and I can get out. But yesterday, Mother’s Day, was hard. Fortunately, we saw family, Julie and Geoff and kids, on Saturday. We sat in their backyard at a distance away from one another and enjoyed seeing their new puppy, Mauve. But no hugging, nor eating each other’s food. We did enjoy great conversation and the joy of seeing one another. Julie and Geoff live in Chicago where there have been 1,000 deaths due to Covid-19. Following the rules is necessary for survival.
I came home with tears in my eyes knowing we could not hug each other and that school, childhood friendships, etc would be different for my grandchildren. But we need to be patient and resilent in these days working on finding new ways to connect and to even thrive.
It rained all day yesterday—so no walk outside. I recorded some songs on the piano which I posted on Face Book, spent time communicating with friends and family on line and worked on planning my week. We are getting quotes on landscaping our backyard and going through and discarding those items we no longer need.
Larry has been dealing with back pain and I work on his back by popping in the verebrate. Larry is 6′ 2″ and I’m not quite 5′ so I actually stand on his back to do this procedure. He loves to stay busy and after reading the Tribune decided to make a banana cake and bread in our breadmaker. I have been trying to cut down on carbos from my diet, but with Larry as a baker this is impossible. How can I not have a hot piece of bread with butter when the delicous smell permeates the house. This means that I’ll do a lot of walking today and exercise on Zoom with my teacher friend, Rose, in her program called Get After It. Now I need to modify my exercises since my teacher is much younger than I am. But I do what I can and love connecting with her and her young daughter, Heleyn.
God has given us hope and encouragement by helping us focus on others rather than ourselves in these unprecedent times. There is always some one to reach out to with words of encouragement, acts of kindness or just a listening ear. Last time I took a walk a stranger smiled and said, “It’s so good to see people again.” Yes, we need one another as the song says, “People who Need People are the Luckiest People in the World.” I find seeing children playing freely with puppies by their side and parents behind them gives me hope for the future. And our land and air quality is improving. These are the positives of staying home.
Almost every morning, my daughter from Montana, sends us a series of jokes. Larry continues to play practical jokes on me like putting his size 12 shoe under my pillow when I lay down to sleep. He always pleads that it wasn’t him who put it there. It mut have been an intruder. And we laugh a lot about ourselves and how we need each other to find our lost items and to finish each other’s sentences these days. Our favorite words are “What” “Where” and “When.” Physically, laughter triggers the release of endorphins that cause a sense of well-being. Studies have demonstrated that children laugh on average more than 300 times a day. We adults only laugh a dismal 15. Times of levity are important.
I encourage everyone to write and reach out to someone new each day. Writing is a catharsis for me as is playing the piano and working on my Spanish lessons. I guess I’m saying having goals for each day is very helplful. I can be thankful for so much and be cognizant of my neigbors nearby.
The sun will shine today. I have wonderful food to eat and a husband who loves me, Zoom meetings to attend, social media to connect, the joy of seeing flowers bloom and trees developing their foliage. I can look back at pictures and sense a well of happiness for the days of freedom in the past when we didn’t think of family and friends as being a carrier of a contagious deadly disese. We have wonderful scientists who are working on a vaccine. We have doctors and nurses who are saving lives and need our encouragement. Although the future looks bleak, better days are ahead and we will get through this time with new appreciation for things we once took for granted