First off: It goes with saying that I sympathize ever so deeply for all the people suffering all kinds of losses during this once in a lifetime pandemic. I simply don’t have the words to express my feelings for everyone hurt by this virus and it’s consequences.
Personally, I feel that some “silver linings” can be found among the dark clouds. Here are some my feelings:
Gratitude: It is such a blessing to be surrounded by family and live in a place of beauty, peace and abundance. It’s Spring and the daytime sky seems more blue than I can ever remember. On a clear night, I see Venus practically kissing the moon. I look closely and can see the dark half of the moon many times. The swelling buds on my favorite beech tree stoke me with anticipation that those purple leaves will soon show up in all their glory. My grandaughter’s delight in seeing three red headed wood peckers on the tree in our yard fills me with hope for the future. The rapid recovery of the earth is heartening. Fish in the canals of Venice and a view of the Himalayan mountains that Indian folks had never witnessed before the air cleared are just two examples of Mother earth’s recuperative powers. These are things that we need to remember as things return to the “normal”, or is it the new abnormal?
Appreciation: To all the people out there, way too numerous to mention that are “soldering on” in the face of all this danger. THANK YOU! a thousand times over.
Patience: Something that has always been in short supply in my toolbox, is also “blooming”. I find myself being able to shed the notion that I have to be accomplishing something tangible at all times. My new mantra: What’s the rush?
I could go on. However, I need to talk about my new found love, Food. That’s right good old fashioned chow has become my new buddy. I realize that I might be just a little late to the “table” with this one, so please forgive. I am a product of my environment where food has always been abundant, easily accessible and usually prepared for me by others.
Retirement has left me with lots of time. I began by helping my wife with the shopping and found it pretty interesting. Slowly, It morphed into me doing all the shopping and much of the cooking. In fairness to my lovely wife, she did this for a lot of years so there are no sour grapes on my part. I realized that I have a lot of “catching up” to do in the culinary department, but my innate competitive sprit (not always a good thing), made me feel up to the task. I was just hitting my “stride” when the corona virus hit.
All of a sudden I was faced with a lot of barren shelves and ,gulp, a line to get into Costco, also making me clothing insecure as Costco has become my choice for fine haberdashery. OK. We are far from starving here. But it gives one pause to think about how many of our fellow human beings go to bed hungry every night. No joke because the number is most likely in the billions! Which brings me back to the gratitude part. It’s going to take a lot more from me than not buying the last two of something (leaving one for the next guy), to feel good about my food security blessing. I commit myself to not wasting food and intend a serious effort in helping others in attain food security.
*Long Island Cares and others like it are going to see a lot of me!
* A local food distribution no-profit
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