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| Bucket List Jar |
Someone said to keep a journal during this time to show your future self what you went through and what you were thinking. My beloved said "Tell them to go to your Facebook".
THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT THIS TIME:
- A daily 7 pm phone call with family. 2 of my siblings' families and both of our progeny and their family are regular attendants and we invite special guests.
- Connecting with other family in Austria - we visited them in September 2019 and Zoom calls are bringing us closer to them that was thought possible
- We are in the germ pool with our son daughter-in-law and granddaughter so we have her at least once a week
- After that Zoom call we go for a walk and have a streak going of over a month. Burlington has so many wonderful neighborhoods that we are taking the time to explore
- We are now not eating take-out at all. For a while we were supporting our local restaurants AND once it gets safer out there we will continue to eat out way more than we eat in
- In our 978 sq feet of condo living, we have not killed each other and have a regular belly laugh daily. The latest was Murg thinking I had gone to the dark side creating a shopping list which was actually from Rise and Shine Dairy. I don't even have a grocery shopping list in normal times.
- Connections to our communities: Our UU Church has regular opportunities to Zoom with other congregants, our YMCA swimming group meets for coffee once a week, Our Star Island conference meets once a week for social hour, and the family ZOOM
- The longer the isolation goes on the more I realize what I can do without and what I crave. We have a bucket list jar of things we cannot do now that we will do when this is over. Our granddaughter put "Get Ice Cream" into the jar. I put go on our trip schedule in February 2021 to Israel
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| Map of Burlington and the Yellow is where we have walked |
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| Rodney and Rudolf in Austria |
AND THINGS THAT SUCK:
- I have been bracing myself to lose someone I knew pretty well and last Saturday night a member of our UU Congregation died. This was the first time I cried uncontrollably. It takes a lot of energy to hold it together and not feel what is going on.
- No hugs except from my Beloved. I now realize how many hugs I give and receive during my day.
- The word uncertainty has become such a part of our language. A member of our family's teen age son asks his Mom, "When will this be over?" and she has to say "I don't know, nobody knows"
- Realizing what we have done to our environment. This is a curse and a blessing. We can see what we have done, and with any luck we will not go back to some of that and will be sane in how we treat Mother Earth. Do we have the resolve to do this? I am not hopeful.
- The USA's reputation - on our Austrian call, one very honest woman does not hold anything back and just asks "Why do you still have him in charge?" I cannot answer that question and am totally embarrassed by #45. What are we doing to our reputation and to the world we are leaving our grandchildren?
- On our evening walks, we walk by small businesses, and I say "They won't survive, they won't survive!" I fear this is sending us into a very deep depression not experienced since 1929. We will be OK but my heart breaks for those who were struggling before COVID19 and will exponentially be worse off now
- Distraction and lack of focus - sometimes in a manic way I get things done AND some days I wonder what I did all day. We have a monthly small group and for preparation we read 8 pages of content. I have read 1/2 a page for our meeting tomorrow. I cannot concentrate on it. Nothing sinks in when I read the words. It has taken me 10 days to read a very engaging mystery novel by Louise Penny.
Those are Sarah's initial ramblings about this strange time. Feel free to correct me in grammar son Chris and his friend Augie ....................
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| Murg thought I had gone to the dark side |
