I am not a Pollyanna…no, these are very difficult times, and I am working hard to continue to choose optimism. Count my blessings, meditate on the positive, whatever I need to do to get through my personal challenges, and I assume everyone has their own way of coping with theirs. My positives were front and center this week, and I want to share them with you.

My family is safe and well…that is number one. Their medical issues continue to worry me, but they are being cared for, and since doctors are now seeing patients in person, they are receiving the medical care they had not been able to receive during the stay-at-home orders. I am breathing easier since they are breathing easier. Bruce and I continue to see my sister, Michele and brother-in-law, Ira for our “food swap” and I have even seen my sister-in-law, Mindy. No hugging, no touching but feeling their warmth around me during this isolation is so comforting. Mindy, Bruce and I are eagerly awaiting the moment when we can see our Mom (theirs, but mine, as well) who is 95 ½ and in an assisted living facility. She has been quarantined in her room since March, and we have only been able to lay our eyes on her from her window. Thank goodness for Alexander Graham Bell and his invention…at least we speak when her clamshell cell phone is charged!

Friends are coping and that is so important to me. We stay connected and help each other feel loved. I participated in a seminar on Self-Care for my friend, Marilyn, and I was with other women I know or have heard mentioned over the years. Hearing how people are handling their self-care made me realize that we are among the fortunate, with many resources available to us. It was beautifully done, and at the end, we did some mindfulness, and I thought about how grounded I feel, despite how upside down the world truly is.

Perhaps, most wonderful for me was the ability to see my darling “Twin” friend, Gail. She had moved to South Carolina in the fall and I went to see her in late January when Corona Virus was something happening far, far away. So much has happened since then, and in South Carolina, they are experiencing a different response to Covid-19 then we in New Jersey. Here it is masks, gloves, social distancing and leave only as necessary. We have so many in our densely populated state, and we are constantly bombarded by worry about close proximity. I told Gail to prepare for a very different state when she returned to New Jersey and a very different state than South Carolina. I brought her a care package of gloves, masks and hand sanitizer…all de rigueur for our times in our state. It was so hard not to embrace Gail, or her sister, Debbie, her real twin, but I knew better. My responsibility is to Bruce, as well as myself to stay healthy. We are in this together and depend upon each other more than any other time. I know Gail and Debbie understood, but we are not ‘distance-keeping” people, so it was very, very difficult to hold my ground and maintain my social distance.

It has been said many times in many ways that “this too, shall pass,” and it will. And we will return to a new place in our lives. Do whatever you need to do to stay mentally and physically healthy, and full of knowledge you have done the right thing for yourself and those you love. If I can give you any words of comfort, it is having AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE goes a long way in feeling positive, and with all that is going on in our world, in our lives right now, that is quite something!

Spread the love