Day 16 of quarantine

Hello. I am not sure why that is the word that we always use to start. 

Perhaps “Help!” is more appropriate in these endless days of self-quarantine.

I hesitate to call this a “newsletter.” Filling in the Blanks is not intended to be about me. It is for you to help you fill in the blanks during this time of isolation, fear and perhaps even a little guilty relief.

As I sit with less to do than ever before, I have exhausted all of the emotions. (anger, fear, despair, indignation, sadness, abject fear, and a lot of grief. My grief has been mostly for those who are also immune compromised, like myself, the elderly and the violently unemployed! But mostly my rage is toward the arrogant, who truly believe because of their youth and naivete, this doesn’t apply to them. Ask the Prince of Wales.

After I got through all of that rancor, what has been the most helpful for me is settling into a place of stillness. Here we all sit, as if on a rocky boat (with no credible captain in sight!) All we have is ourselves to hold us together, keep us steady using our own homemade devices. It may be an imaginary oar or it may be simply the comfort of having a roof over our heads. It’s definitely having those we love around us…I mean really around us and learning how to honor them with the delicious “original love.” Original love is the yearning we all felt when they first came into our lives. We have gotten used to yearning because they are away at school or work or in the womb. Perhaps, we use this time as an opportunity to be different for our loved ones and for ourselves. For the first time, we have time. I am slowly getting into the rhythm as the boat rocks and rocks, upsetting my stomach, less and less.

So, I say to you…

Enjoy the stillness and see it as an opportunity to recreate what was…not working so well before.

Enjoy the company if you have it. It won’t be forever.

Enjoy your space. This is the only time you can hoard it with a polite reason to not let anyone in.

I challenge all of us to not waste this precious time. Let’s come out on the other side with something you didn’t know you had.