Love in the time of COVID-19
I see families in my neighborhood outside playing together in their yards. I see people posting their high school senior year pictures to support the Senior class of 2020. I see schools supplying children with food during this pandemic, to any child under the age of eighteen that needs food. I see people walking. People are eating at home. People baking bread from scratch. Unplugging devices and plugging into each other. y stressed.
Social Physical distancing.
Don’t touch your face.
Hoard groceries.
Ignore the stay-at-home order.
Get take-out.
Have you listened to the warnings?
Have you been scared?
Are you still scared?
Covid-19
Fever
Cough
Tiredness
Difficulty breathing
Possible death
Covid-19 is scary. It has changed our lives. I don’t know if they are changed forever, but for now – our lives look different. Besides the inconveniences, there have been positives that have come out of this time, for me.
How has life changed for me during this pandemic?
I am staying at home. I only leave to get groceries once a week or so. I am lucky that my children live close by so I can see them.
I am washing my hands more often. I thought I washed them before Covid-19 but I suppose I only quickly rinsed them with soap. Now I am more aware of how I truly wash my hands.
When I go to the store, I wear a mask. I only touch items I am putting in my grocery cart. I do not browse. I go in, get what I need, and I leave.
I watch the East Tennessee State University’s interactive COVID-19 tracking map for Tennessee. I watch the numbers go up.
What else has changed for me during this time of Covid-19?
I see people reaching out to each other more often. I see physical distancing and social connecting.
My husband and I had wine last night, six feet away from our next-door neighbors. We have lived beside them for four years and we have only waved at them from our driveway. Last night as we sat and talked, we found out they both speak Spanish and they had met in Mexico. We found out more about his job as an attorney and her job as an educator in the school system here. We connected with them. We have had Facetime/Zoom/Skype get-togethers with friends and family that we do not get to socialize with often.
My yoga studio is closed. The physical studio has been closed since March 14th, 2020. We opened our online studio March 23rd. We have had people put their accounts on hold. We have had others maintain their accounts to support us and make sure our studio still exists when this pandemic is over. We have given scholarships to people in the service industry that can no longer work and to healthcare providers that are overly stressed.
I am able to spend more time with my husband. We walk each day together. We look forward to cocktail hour to sit together and chat. It has been hard not being able to work as much, but we have found more love, in this time of Covid-19, for each other. We have more time to talk about dreams, hopes, future travel and what we want our future to look like.
Love in the time of COVID-19. I was living it. ng together in their yards. I see people posting their high school senior year pictures to support the Senior class of 2020. I see schools supplying children with food during this pandemic, to any child under the age of eighteen that needs food. I see people walking. People are eating at home. People baking bread from scratch. Unplugging devices and plugging in to life.
Covid-19 changed my world, as I was living it.
I am lucky to have not contracted this virus. I will remain careful so I will lessen my chances, in the future, of getting this virus. It is scary but there are positives that have happened in my little piece of this world because of being forced to slow down. To see the world around me and the love that is there.
Love in the time of Covid-19.
