Thursday, May 14, 2020

Picture of the Week - 5/14/2020

I'm not officially keeping track of number of days since the coronavirus wrecked 2020 anymore because we are all starting to safely venture out a wee bit now.  (But if you are keeping track, today is day 63...)

Today I'm sharing a picture of my view from my home office.  It's one of my favorite parts of this house.  You can't see the bird feeder in this picture, but it keeps me entertained all day long.  You can't see the iris which has just about finished blooming for the year.  You probably can't make out the new shade-loving gardenia we just planted.  As much as I really REALLY love this view - even without the OSU shot-glass vase with the fragrant peony in it - I'm super happy that things are slowing returning to some form of normal.  I refuse to call this the "new normal" because it can NOT stay like this.  I refuse to shirk away from human contact for the rest of my life.  People in the grocery store don't even look each other in the eye anymore.  We are not made to be solitary creatures.  We need contact and we need to connect with our tribe.  And this is coming from a hard-core introvert.  I can't even imagine the extroverts of the world and the toll this is having on them.

Georgia started opening back up about 17 days ago (the timeline is actually very important) because if we were going to see a big spike of cases from people being dumb, we probably would have started to see that happen already.  We haven't seen that - even with a big increase in testing being done.  In fact, Georgia's percentage of positive tests and death rates are both dropping.  Could we still see a rebound and spike in disease?  Sure could.  And that would be heartbreaking and sad.  And I don't want that to happen.  Just because I am starting to - safely - venture out my front door does not mean I don't care about the deaths.  This is not an either-or situation.  

We are continuing to mostly stay home and be careful, but our gyms have reopened - and we are attending.  Restaurants have opened and I've eaten out a couple of times.  I went for an MRI today in preparation for an elective shoulder surgery that I will have as soon as I can get it scheduled.  I wore a mask the whole time I was there.  I have never felt unsafe in any situation I've chosen to put myself into.  

SO yes, getting back to just a few things that happened regularly pre-covid is a big mood booster.  Things are not the way we thought they would be as we entered the last week of school.  I don't know when or if our pool will open.  I don't think church will reopen until August.  I don't know what summer camp situation is going to look like for at least the first few weeks of "summer".  It's still unclear if we will be able to go on vacation in our beach-front rental home in Florida.  But driving out of the neighborhood for a workout or to meet my small group at socially distanced picnic tables is GOOD.  It's healthy.  It's part of what makes humans, well, human.

Stay safe.  Stay smart.  And do what makes you feel good.  

I also highly recommend getting a pretty flower and putting it in a tiny vase wherever you can see if from wherever you spend the most time.  Life is beautiful and we should remember that every chance we can get.


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