Month: April 2020

Everyone, Together

“Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.” -unknown

My daughter took this picture of the full moon last night. She and my second eldest son were fiddling around with his telescope and her fancy Nikon camera. It was such a beautiful, peaceful night under the glow of this absolutely gorgeous super moon. Everyone around the world witnessed the complete awesomeness of this lovely, beautiful moon last night. At this current time in history, everyone around the world is experiencing pain, loss and fear from the pandemic, but at the same time, everyone around the world was gifted with the beauty and the glow of this gorgeous moon and the gifts that the moon brings to our oceans’ tides and to our shared wonder about the mystery of space. The above mentioned quote bears repeating:

“Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.” -unknown

What we are going through right now, is undoubtedly awful, but we are in it together. We will overcome this situation, together. We will prevail, together. We will lessen the heavy, burdensome load of each other’s grief, by carrying it together and the overwhelming happiness that we will feel when the trauma of the coronavirus finally passes, will be amplified to an unbelievable, magnificent degree because we will be feeling that staggering happiness, together. Everyone, together.

Repository

https://youtu.be/HwLzAdriec0

I have found that I use this blog, much like my calendar and my daily journal, as a repository for information which I would like to easily be able to find again, should I need it. I consider my blog to be a communal bank/library and I hope that you will come back any time, for any information that may be useful and/or comforting to you. I have found the search button on the top right corner of the blog, to be surprisingly good. The above video was shared by the Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling. She did not get tested for coronavirus but she was showing signs of it, for a couple of weeks and she claimed that this technique was the most helpful tip for her, during her illness. Honestly, though, while I share this in the library of information on the blog, I hope none of us get sick enough to have to use it as a resource.

A while ago, around Christmastime, one year on the blog, I talked about the feeling of being “happily sad” or “sadly happy.” I have found that feeling to be very prevalent during this difficult time, especially as the feeling pertains to children and how this pandemic is affecting them. I read this morning that the prime minister of New Zealand, announced to children that she had added the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, on the essential workers list, and as such, they may or may not be able to do their typical duties, and she asked the children of New Zealand to please understand.

The below video was added to Twitter by a doting uncle, who said that his nephew is among the friendliest little guys on the face of the earth and even through social distancing, he extends warm greetings to perhaps just “imaginary friends.”

https://t.co/yxCepxPHyS

And of course, John Krasinski hit it out of the ball park again with another wonderful addition to his SGN (Some Good News) YouTube series:

Friends, I know it is so hard to feel like just staying home is enough, but it is honestly the best thing that we can do for everyone. Our neighbor is one of our county’s medical examiners. Last week, we shouted greetings across the road to each other, asking him what we could do to help. Without hesitation, he firmly shouted/stated, “Stay hidden. Stay home!” Today is World Health Day. Let’s honor the brave and selfless health professionals who are taking care of us, by doing our part, by being faithful to the guidelines set by the CDC. We are all just doing our best. It makes me happily sad/sadly happy to witness “our global best.”

Arbitrary Reflections

Random thoughts of mine, on a rainy Monday during the coronavirus shutdown:

+Coronavirus is still brand new enough of a word that WordPress underlines it, as if it’s a misspelled word. I really wish that was all that coronavirus is – just a misspelled word. If only we could correct coronavirus, by spelling it differently.

+Three of my immediate family members have celebrated birthdays during this quarantine. Everyone has had the same response along with their well wishes, “This is a birthday that you will never forget!” We keep reminding our kids that they will be telling their grandchildren about these days, many years into the future.

+As a person who leans more towards being an introvert, my lifestyle hasn’t changed all that drastically. I just more hate having the constant underlying anxiety and the psychological toll that a lack of freedom, takes on me. As a person who also leans towards a lot of empathy, my heart hurts a lot, for my more extroverted family and friends, who have had so many plans and experiences stolen from them, from this awful scourge.

+I have an old burnt down candle that is one of my favorite aromas. I keep it on my desk and I smell it every morning, to make sure that I still have a good sense of smell. I like the reassurance and the false sense of security that this routine gives to me, along with imbibing zinc, echinacea, Vitamin C, tonic water (has quinine in it, which is considered anti-malarial) and my Green Vibrance. The “old wife” from “old wives’ tales” notoriety, comes out of me, hard, in times like these.

+My energy levels have dropped significantly. I can’t even seem to get myself to write my daily journal. Sometimes I just write “Quarantine Life” in big block letters on the day’s page in my journal. In Florida, a lot of cars have “Salt Life” stickers on their rear windows. Will they start making “Quarantine Life” stickers?

+There are a lot of really funny people (even if they aren’t great spellers) on Twitter, if you find the right hashtag. One of the funniest threads I saw over the weekend was #TerribleQuaratineAdvice, with quarantine spelled incorrectly. Some funny responses:

Speak openly and honestly with everyone who you are quarantined with.

When heading to the bank, wear a ski mask for protection.

Everyone should switch to a bean-based diet.

What you can’t see, can’t hurt you. Instead of a mask, wear a blindfold.

Play a hashtag game on Twitter, with obvious spelling mistakes.

Enjoy another day of Quarantine Life, friends and readers! I’ll see you tomorrow. Stay well!!!

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Soul Sunday

Happy Birthday, to my wonderful eldest son! You made parenting so amazing and fulfilling, that we went on to have three more awesome children. I love you. I am proud of you. It’s killing me that you are so far away from me, but you’re doing great, enjoying your own company, during this pandemic. I can’t blame you. You are a joy to be with and to talk to and to gather good energy from, by you, just being you. You are one of the most authentic people I have ever known. You are the best company! Don’t ever change. Here’s a quote that I know that you will like:

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.” – Kurt Cobain

So, my regular readers know that Sundays are poetry workshop days, here at Adulting – Second Half. On Sundays, I typically share a poem that I have written and I ask you to do the same in the Comments section. Today, I was inspired by something my husband read in the Wall Street Journal. Here are a couple of haikus, published in this weekend’s WSJ, by Nishant Choksi, describing/depicting our quarantine life: (Haikus are three lines, 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables)

Can’t work with children

Clinging to my every limb

I am a plaything!

________________________________________________________________________________________

I have measured out

This help-desk call in Cheez-its

Fifteen and counting

________________________________________________________________________________________

All day on the phone

Convincing Boomer parents

To please, please stay home

________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s my stab at it:

________________________________________________________________________________________

Keeping up with news

Is exhausting and scary

But I just can’t stop

________________________________________________________________________________________

Home Sweet Home, they say

And that’s generally true

Until you are stuck

________________________________________________________________________________________

Try some haiku poems of your own, friends! They are fun! Take care. I am wishing you peace, health and sanity. (I’ve had a lot of people wishing us sanity, lately. I’m not going to take it personally. 😉 )

The Rainbow Connection

Happy birthday, to the love of my life, my husband, my adventurer in co-parenting, and the co-creator of my most fun adventures and greatest joys! There is no other person in the world who I would rather be quarantined with, and I know how lucky I am to feel this way. Of course, I am also greatly looking forward to being “un-quarantied” with you, too, so that we can continue with even more wondrous adventures than ever!

To be clear, my husband and I, and our children, are well, so far. I am not sure what the word is, for the current lifestyle which we are all leading these days, but other than dog walks and very occasional grocery trips, we stay home. It sure as hell feels like a quarantine to me. But if our current lifestyle helps to save even just one life, than it is of little concern to us. Of course, we want to do our part to tamp down this horrific virus, anyway that we can.

The pictures below are of my beautiful collie, Josie. Her favorite spot in the house is lying on the cold, smooth, tile floor. She is very strategic about how she lines herself up. She likes to be in the direct line of rainbows.

They say that we learn much more from children and animals than we ever teach them. Children and animals trust their innate connection to the rhythms of life much better than we do. They don’t have a “programmed up” brain, full of stories and explanations and constant voices and hang-ups about “the shoulds”, like we adult humans do. Today, I wish for me, and for my birthday boy, and for all of us, really, the peace and the contentment that I see and that I feel emanating from Josie, when she lies in direct connection with her rainbows – those beautiful, calming colors sent from above, surrounding her and surrounding us and everything on earth, even when there isn’t a prism to remind us that the light is always there.

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.” ― A.A. Milne

“How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett

“Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.” ― Gregory Maguire

 “Animals are the bridge between us and the beauty of all that is natural. They show us what’s missing in our lives, and how to love ourselves more completely and unconditionally. They connect us back to who we are, and to the purpose of why we’re here.” ― Trisha McCagh

Give Me Some Sugar

My friend texted this to our group chat this morning. I know that I typically go for funnier memes on my favorite day of the week, but I think that I have a little “PTSD” type thing going on, after making an early morning excursion to my grocery store. I never in a million years dreamed that I would have to “psych myself up” to make a trip to my own little neighborhood grocery store. Lately, I tend to get there once, every 7-10 days, whereas before, being a mother of a large brood, I often made a daily trip to our store (sometimes even twice daily). I had to wait outside of my store this morning around 7:55 a.m., probably about 20th in line, before it even opened. I was the last one to score some toilet paper. My hats off, once again, to the wonderful workers at the stores. The managers, the clerks, the bakers, and the baggers were so patient, courteous and kind. I asked if Publix was taking good care of them and they assured me that the company was doing right by them. Thank you, Publix.

New readers, I call Fridays, Favorite Things Friday. I don’t try to get too serious on Fridays, so I’ll try to keep with that light-hearted tradition, as we go through this truly surreal experience, together. Please look at previous Friday posts for more favorites. This week, I decided to start a weekly movie night with the family on Thursdays, while we are all quarantined together. I would have made ” Family Movie Night” a more frequent event, but the rest of the family seemed to think that once a week, is what works best. (Baby steps) Last night was the inaugural night and we watched a fascinating documentary. It is called Searching for Sugarman. It tells the story about an American musician named Rodriguez who became incredibly famous (more than even The Beatles or Elvis) in South Africa in the 1970s, without knowing it. It was a fascinating watch and even better, I discovered some new excellent music (and the lyrics are pure poetry) for my playlist. So here is my favorite new music. Give these tunes a listen (“I Wonder” is my ultimate favorite, second on the play list):

I’m also in the middle of reading a fascinating book. Ironically, it was also written by a South African. It is called The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life by Boyd Varty. I won’t get into a synopsis of the book. I think I’ll just take you into the weekend with my favorite quote from the book. The quote requires some rumination. Take care, dear friends. We’re in this together. Have a peaceful, fulfilling weekend. Here’s the quote:

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I know exactly how to get there.” – Boyd Varty

#Everyday Heroes

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If you are like me, struggling to find ways to be helpful throughout this crisis, I thought that these were wonderful ideas. So, I copied these peoples’ thoughtfulness and put out a little box of goodies today, by our front door. These pictures were found on Twitter with #ThanksForDelivering trending.

I stopped off at a local Walgreens yesterday to see if they had any toilet paper. They didn’t. Of course. I bought some laundry detergent and I waited patiently behind a blue tape line several feet away from the cashier who now stands several feet away from the counter. The cashier is a woman who has waited on me before, so we got to talking. I asked her if she ever thought that her job would end up being one of the bravest, most stressful, through this whole ordeal. She replied that she hadn’t really thought of it that way, but she was doing okay. She did say that she looked in the mirror every morning, and noticed an exponential quickening of her aging process.

We are blessed by having heroes all around us, through this pandemic. Of course, our doctors, nurses and health practitioners are tireless heroes. Our soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and first responders are amazing heroes. Our political leaders, having to make quick and wide-sweeping decisions, at the blink of an eye, are awe-inspiring heroes. Our teachers, having to change the course of their lessons from “in-person” to on-line, in very short notice, are truly heroes. Our journalists and photojournalists, bravely going out to get the straight stories, on the depressing front lines are heroes. Our grocery store/drug store personnel are incredibly brave and dutiful heroes. And our delivery drivers, probably busier than ever, putting fear to the side, to do their jobs, so that the rest of us can do our duty, to mostly stay at home, are magnificent heroes. We are so blessed to be surrounded by every day angels, who are just people – people, just like you and me. And sadly, it took this awful coronavirus crisis, for us to fully understand and to appreciate this truth. I am so grateful to have my eyes opened to the every day angels, who support my life, in normal times and also, in the hardest times of all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Bill Gates Knows

My aunt forwarded this in an email to me yesterday. What a wise, wonderful, brilliant man! Bill Gates is a class act. His life has been a gift to our world.

*BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE FROM BILL GATES**What is the Corona/ Covid-19 Virus Really Teaching us?*

I’m a strong believer that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens, whether that is what we perceive as being good or being bad.

 As I meditate upon this, I want to share with you what I feel the Corona/ Covid-19 virus is really doing to us:

1) It is reminding us that we are all equal, regardless of our culture, religion, occupation, financial situation or how famous we are. This disease treats equally, perhaps we should too. If you don’t believe me, just ask Tom Hanks.

2) It is reminding us that we are all connected and something that affects one person has an effect on another. It is reminding us that the false borders that we have put up have little value as this virus does not need a passport. It is reminding us, by oppressing us for a short time, of those in this world whose whole life is spent in oppression.

3) It is reminding us of how precious our health is and how we have moved to neglect it through eating nutrient poor manufactured food and drinking water that is contaminated with chemicals upon chemicals. If we don’t look after our health, we will, of course, get sick.

 4) It is reminding us of the shortness of life and of what is most important for us to do, which is to help each other, especially those who are old or sick. Our purpose is not to buy toilet roll.

 5) It is reminding us of how materialistic our society has become and how, when in times of difficulty, we remember that it’s the essentials that we need (food, water, medicine)
 as opposed to the luxuries that we sometimes unnecessarily give value to.

 6) It is reminding us of how important our family and home life is and how much we have neglected this. It is forcing us back into our houses so we can rebuild them into our home and to strengthen our family unit.


 7) It is reminding us that our true work is not our job, that is what we do, not what we were created to do. Our true work is to look after each other, to protect each other and to be of benefit to one another.

 8) It is reminding us to keep our egos in check. It is reminding us that no matter how great we think we are or how great others think we are, a virus can bring our world to a standstill.

 9) It is reminding us that the power of freewill is in our hands. We can choose to cooperate and help each other, to share, to give, to help and to support each other or we can choose to be selfish, to hoard, to look after only our self. Indeed, it is difficulties that bring out our true colors.

 10) It is reminding us that we can be patient, or we can panic. We can either understand that this type of situation has happened many times before in history and will pass, or we can panic and see it as the end of the world and, consequently, cause ourselves more harm than good.

 11) It is reminding us that this can either be an end or a new beginning. This can be a time of reflection and understanding, where we learn from our mistakes or it can be the start of a cycle which will continue until we finally learn the lesson we are meant to.

 12) It is reminding us that this Earth is sick. It is reminding us that we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off of shelves. We are sick because our home is sick.

13) It is reminding us that after every difficulty, there is always ease. Life is cyclical, and this is just a phase in this great cycle. We do not need to panic; this too shall pass.

 14) Whereas many see the Corona/ Covid-19 virus as a great disaster, I prefer to see it as a *great corrector*