What do we want to hold onto in the next phases of living with COVID19?

I have been thinking a lot about what to hold onto in the next few phases of COVID19.

With seeing the changes that have happened to the environment since we are not destroying Mother Earth as much as we were PC (Pre-Covid).  I would love us to listen to the messages She is sending us through the flora and fauna and their resilience.  It is almost as if god has sent us this horrific virus to help us to learn about our behaviors and our destruction of the stability

Second full moon of our nightly walks

Nightly Walks - one good habit is the nightly walks exploring all of the neighborhoods around us.  I think by now we have walked most if not all of the streets within 2 miles of our condo.  It started as a very necessary escape from our 978 square feet at a time of day when there were not that many people around.  We donned our masks, set up sometimes with a destination, sometimes not.  We walked by houses of our Unitarian Universalist Society's congregants, and explored entire neighborhoods like the Five Sisters, Old North End, South End, UVM and a bit of the Hill Section.

Hand washing - I have never washed my hand so much in my life and I do understand now why in medical offices practitioners wash their hands, or use sanitizer so much.  When I leave the condo building now, I immediately feel like I am not protected anymore AND it is pretty much a reflexive reaction to head to a sink and wash my hands.  I don't always get to the end of Happy Birthday or the ABC song.  I suspect that this practice/habit will continue for the rest of my life.  Not sure, but I think it will.

6 foot distancing - this one I am not sure will be maintained.  When I watch a TV show now and see normal TV personalities going about their show, I sometimes yell at them "6 Feet distancing, you are not physically distancing, what are you thinking of?"  Even at home when Murg and I pass in our smallish condo, I try to maintain 6 feet, from the only person that I can actually break that 6 foot barrier.  I am a very huggy person as anyone who knows me well knows.  It is really hard to pass someone I know on Church Street or the bike path, and not be able to hug them hello.  This includes family members.  I have not hugged my son and daughter in law or my brothers and their partners, in almost 2 months.  I walk at 6 feet with friends but there is not the hug hello AND goodbye.  This will be a difficult one for me, if hugs are going to be very much less frequent.  Writing this has me in tears.

Poster for Roxy our local independent theater

Local shopping - I wrote a blog post in 2011 about trying to buy everything from the US.  I bought a lot less things that year because I did not allow myself to break this self-imposed rule.  INSERT BLOG POST HERE

From our car when we lived in Colorado WZ is for Routt County

Local Road Trips - Well, before March 2019 I was not a big fan of Road Trips.  We had a wonderful 5 day trip from Burlington to Tucson AND at the end of that, since we had not killed each other and had both really enjoyed the adventure I became a convert.  We are thinking of a reunion in Colorado in 2021 and we might go across Canada and then down to Colorado through the Rocky Mountain States.  Even day road trips, or afternoon road trips have become a weekly occurrence.  We have discovered towns in Vermont we never knew existed and are on a quest to visit the 100 Covered Bridges in Vermont.  Photo Album to follow of usies in front of them. I have also been thinking about our travels in the last 5 years and how much we have been on airplanes for those.  At the very least I will continue to pay the carbon offsets, AND I am thinking about train travel instead of airline travel, assuming that Amtrak makes it through this.

Outside the Converse House

Essential Workers - The hopeful part of me, hopes that we continue to recognize who the Essential Workers are.  They are not necessarly the CEOs and marketing professionals or the politicians.  They are the front line hospital workers, and the grocery store clerks, and the lowest paid aides in nursing homes, who are holding the hands of dying COVID patients because their families cannot be there during this quarantine time.    

Regular Family Connections - My dear beloved set up a nightly Zoom call for my siblings, their children, our children and other family members some of whom have become regulars.  This does not work for all of our families.  It does work for half of us.  We have been doing this nightly for 6ish weeks now.  We invite guests sometimes, and we play trivia, and Codenames.  We laugh we cry and on Daddy's birthday when he would have been 93, we sang Happy Birthday to him.  Until this week, we were regular attendees to these.  We have decided to go to 3 times a week AND I hope we continue these forever.  We have connected by Zoom with a leg of our family, the deGanahl/Ganahl/Walker side.  We are located in Austria, Wyoming, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Georgia, Vermont, and who did I forget?  As a result we have the next two reunions planned, in Colorado and then in Feldkirk Austria.  This sounds so trite, but the older I get the more important family becomes and the less important material things are.

Letter to the Skate Boarders

Gentle with others - this is not an absolute for sure.  When I came across this note to skateboarders taped to the side of the sidewalk on a stone ledge, I smiled.  The writer would have reported them to the Police (which they might have).  Instead, this note seems so civil and positioned where the skate boarders will see it, on a ledge they were using for their maneuvers.  I have to say that I was irritated by the skate boarders AND would not have thought of this approach, but I took note and will think about my reaction next time I am irked by someone.

Outside Burlington City Hall

Stop and smell the flowers - Again this sounds very trite but there have been so many daffodils, and tulips and other spring flowers that are proving that we live in a resilient ecosystem.  Spring will come each year with regularity and consistency and is a beacon of hope.   Our Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington preached on this a few weeks ago. Rev Tricia's sermon

Good food and exploration - From the beginning of this containment I have been exploring new recipes, good healthy ones and decadent cream based ones.  The Peanut Quinoa soup was delicious, Potato Leek soup is being made again today, Split Pea soup also being made today, enchiladas, Rod's favorite la tourtière and the cream de la resistance, chocolate silk pie.  I hope to continue to cook healthy food, and eat out less once the containment loosens.

Different worship experiences - in case you have not heard our daughter is the minister of UU Church of Tucson.  From the beginning of CORVID we have made Youtube attending her services a part of our regular Sunday routine.  PC I listened to the MP3 file of her services as soon as I saw them posted on their FB page or website.  The Audiovisual service her colleagues and she are putting together every Sunday feed my soul in a way I cannot describe.  Some of the first Sundays, I explored other congregations as well and saw a good friend preach at Central Unitarian Church in Paramas and another friend preach at First Parish Brookline and I watched the minister at All Souls Washington DC who I have always wanted to hear.  Here is Rev Bethany's Youtube channel if you want to explore any of the Baja4's services.  Youtube Channel for UU Church of Tucson

Breakthrough thinking - This is a big one and is pretty amorphous and will continue whether we plan to or not.  We have had to change a lot of our activities in the last 8 weeks.  Shopping looks different, worship looks different, daily contact looks different, exercise looks different, education looks different, meetings look different, medical care looks different, offices looks different, connections looks different, hugs looks different, cleaning looks different, travel looks different, vacation plans look different, state borders looks different, etc etc etc.  Many of these changes are perceived as a loss AND many of these are a huge win.  The balance of win and loss is going to be interesting as we move toward more "normal" times.  BTW we will never go back to that normal.  I teach management training and learned a new model in 1995 that has been invaluable to me.  William Bridges's model says that is is so important to let go of what you had, and all of the emotions around what you are leaving.  We used this at Polaroid when we had a new President, and the HR department spent a whole day sharing emotions about letting go of the prior President and what that regime gave them.  They did this in order to be ready to positively embrace the new President.  They were also able to help their business partners with the same process of letting go, having done it themselves already.   Change model from William Bridges

Emphasis on Volunteering - personally I volunteer a fair amount but where I will volunteer going forward has shifted when it is safe again.  I am really struck as others are about who the essential workers are.  I am also struck by my privilege during this time.  I have a roof over my head, plenty of money to buy food, a supportive group of friends and family and the ability to shelter-in-place indefinitely.  During some of our nightly walks as we walked down Church Street we walked by others who were struggling with addiction, or mental health issues, or food insecurity and the other issues which cause someone to be outside when there is a shelter in place order.  The State did locate many homeless at our North Beach campground in RVs for approximately 6-8 weeks.  I heard that this is ending soon.  Where will they go now?  My heart has broken when I hear about every person who has died and especially the two rehabilitations facilitates around us here in Burlington.  I cannot imagine dying without a family member holding your hand and instead a hospital worker with a mask on is the one who might be there when you die.  I have made over 100+ masks for friends and family and started with family who might be exposed to CORVID.  Once I had delivered 60ish to that first group I started making them through Lyric Stage for the UVM Medical Center.  It seems that there is an almost infinite number of masks needed.  I cannot obsess with this production of masks and I have had to take a few sabbaticals from making them.  I also have to intersperse sewing masks with making my art quilts.  When is is safe, I think I will restart my hospice volunteering, volunteer at the Food Pantry and continue the work in my denomination around racism and classism.  I recently joined the board of Age Well since I agree whole heartedly with their mission and have been looking for a board on which to serve.

I have many more thoughts and might never post this if I keep going so this is good enough for now.  I would love to have a conversation about any of this, so give me a call.