How are you all managing with the self isolation as per the Covid-19 recommendations and guidelines?
I was out in the studio the other day stitching some scraps into strings, onto old phone book pages, while listening to one of my favorite YouTube channels.
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| Yet another basket of Scraps! I swear they multiply when I'm not paying attention! |
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| Random width strips, sewn onto old phone book pages - for easy paper removal when done, will net me new scrap blocks for a future project. A great simple project while I listen to the radio or a You Tube Channel. |
The presenter was sharing that she had always dreamed of being snowed in and stuck at home for weeks at a time. In fact, in many of her videos, she would often comment how much this was her one big wish. A Dream, actually! And here she is. Stuck at home. For weeks at a time. Unable to go anywhere.
Then she realized that maybe she really didn't want this dream after all. She was having difficulty getting about her day. Difficulty finding any motivation. It is very different, when you know the situation is temporary and there will be an end in sight.
She had always been a very patterned person with a strict schedule. A busy mom, grandmother, full time management level employee, homesteader, a canner, a YouTube content maker. And yet, here she was, suddenly "living the dream" as it were, yet getting nothing accomplished!
After speaking with a friend, it was decided that perhaps she was experiencing a mild form of depression. This was nothing she hadn't ever experienced before. She is not prone to depression. Never had been. Her sudden lack of motivation was troubling her as she is usually a whirl wind. A 100 mph girl, in her normal day to day life. But suddenly, like everyone else, her everyday normal life as she knew it, was over. Without warning.
Armed with this new insight, she has firmly decided to take this opportunity to get up and use her time to get at all those "extra back burner" projects accomplished. The ones that were on the someday list. She didn't want to look back at this time and regret not putting it to good use. She has always been a list maker, but has decided to add a deadline to each of the items on the list. Clean out the shed: Monday. Paint the cabinet: Tuesday afternoon. Organize and inventory the pantry: Wednesday morning, and so on. She is still working from home as her job is an essential service and she does have to go into her office twice a week, but she is becoming much more focused on the tasks at hand.
This pandemic, obviously, is nothing like a good, old fashioned snowed in for a week blizzard, by any stretch of the imagination. But, there are some similarities for sure. For those of you working the front lines, be it medical, essential services and essential retail, I salute you and thank you for your sacrifice. For those of you able to work from home, it puts your occupation into a different light, for sure. For the rest of us, business owners, retirees, self employed, those currently in limbo, are you using this time to explore your potential? Or are you feeling unmotivated or afraid or worried about the future? The new, new normal.
I am feeling confident to share, that like every other pandemic, stock market crash, economic depression in the past, things Will eventually get back to "normal". It's just this "new" normal may or may not have a resemblance to our previous "old" normal.
I am old enough to remember home doctor visits. They were called house calls back in the day. During this "old" normal time, I remember getting stitches on the kitchen table as a child and shots at home, as well. They didn't want really sick people sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office, potentially spreading their germs to the others also waiting there. I remember if you did have to go in and were really sick, you were immediately put into a separate room - for your own and everyone else's protection. It has only been since the 1970's and 1980's that the doctor's office waiting rooms got more communal and much busier. And now, if you can't get an appointment, you are encouraged to use a walk in clinic or visit the emergency room at the hospital. How did it get to this point? This "new" normal.
In the "old" normal, I remember that when you were sick, you knew to stay home until you were well again. You weren't shamed into going into work or told that if you didn't come in even with a 102 degree F fever and hoarse from coughing, that you would be fired. Or told that you have taken too many "sick days" this year and couldn't have the time off. Like now, in the "new" normal.
We didn't see people with the flu wandering the grocery aisles and coughing up whatnot, picking up items with freshly coughed upon hands, then putting those items back as they were decided against. Spreading their joy to everyone during their outing. People just knew to stay home. Someone would bring chicken soup. Three to five days later, you felt well enough to go back to work or to school and the entire office or classroom wasn't fighting a recirculating virus/flu for months at a time, like they do in today's normal.
It was 4 years ago this month that I picked up a virus at a quilt show. I was tired and run down from just having closed my store, but otherwise healthy. I was looking very much to going to a quilt show as a viewer and not a vendor or supplier. It was at this show that someone sneezed on me. A full on sneeze to my face. I was shocked to say the least and immediately went to the ladies room to wash up. Two days later I was feeling rotten. Five days later I was so terribly sick that we cancelled our much anticipated trip out to the Island for a respite. I was sick for a year. An entire year. To this day, I have not recovered to my former state of health. Perhaps the sneezer didn't realize she was sick. I would like to hope so. That virus and my personal experience with it, has changed my life. I had always avoided people and public places when I have a cold. I would hate to make someone else unwell do to my inconsideration. Unfortunately, not everyone feels the same way. This too, is a "new" normal.
We are gone from a society where we weren't expected to be super human, multi tasking, over achievers afraid to lose our jobs if we had to stay home for a few days, every now and then. People got sick, but it is nothing like now. The viruses and flues seem to hang around for months on end.
I remember the AIDS crisis of the 1980's very well. No one knew where it came from. No one knew how to treat it. Public opinion and fear were rampant! People were afraid to use public washrooms for fear of catching it from a toilet seat. When it became understood, people were educated on how to keep themselves safe, and it has become pretty much non news worthy now. This will too. We will "remember when", but we will become better informed and better able to manage it. In time.
Maybe our "new" normal might actually allow people to properly take care of themselves again for the betterment of all those around them?
Every generation and era has experienced a major health, financial and/or social crisis. We are not immune to this. After this one, there will be another and then another. It is how the world works. This is not a new thing. But, I do think one of the biggest differences we are experiencing now is science has a better understanding of how a pandemic moves. This, and they are using our moment by moment attachment to the media, that we keep at our very fingertips, to communicate both informed and misguided information. And this is also where it can get really tricky. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the facts from the fiction, as the current information can change within moments.
Like a "snowed in blizzard", society doesn't know how to handle the sudden change in our day to day lives. Unlike a snowed in blizzard, this will be longer than the 2 weeks or a month before we can dig ourselves out of it.
Since we have no control over the situation, we need be mindful and thankful that we have those doing and advising us, in the best way that they can for us all. We need to listen to them as we navigate our "new" normal. We also need to be thankful that we could actually still live in a time where we didn't know what was coming or going on, until it was far from too late.
This too, shall pass. Use your time to the best of your ability. So when you look back on this, in say 10 years, let be a time when you can say, "I did . . . then", "I learned how to . . . then", "My loved ones survived the pandemic of '20 because we stayed home" and this is our "new" normal.
Until next time. Stay home. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Gremlynn
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