Today Washington State is 3 weeks and 3 days into the COVID-19 lockdown. Strange moments remind me what universe I am in. My son went to get some groceries and I rush over to him before he left, “Take a face mask! They might not let you into the store without one!” People will cross the street instead of walking past you on the same sidewalk, while folks a few blocks over meet in their culdesac, sit 6 feet apart on deck chairs to talk to each other in the evenings. A local bookstore is offering to deliver your book order to your door if you live in town. We had a delivery for dinner the other day. The driver knocked on the door, left the food in a paper bag then took 6 large steps back and waited for the door to open. There was an awkward moment if I should even talk to her. She seemed scared. “Thank you! Have a good night.” Everyday things are a new dance. New etiquettes are surfacing. Common courtesies have new rules.
I’m sitting at my desk, thinking about the day and what to journal, I am wondering why I selected those 5 ridiculous questions to answer every day. I no longer like them. I think it is obvious that I’ve never been in a pandemic before! (…BTW- if, so some reason, the planet goes through this again within our lifetime, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENT? How would you prepare if you know you had perhaps a 4-day notice or maybe you saw the clues three months ahead of time. Would you fly to a tropical beach? Buy 100 rolls of toilet paper? Sell your cruise tickets? Just wondering…I like where I am and who I am quarantined with but I wish my apartment was larger, like if I had space for a back yard, a swimming pool and a craft room.)
These daily personal inquires started with good intentions like most bad ideas, but, I’m just not going to do it anymore. You can’t make me.
1) an observed joy- meant for me to keep my eyes on the positive.
2) a real concern- designed to remind me what is a REAL problem.
3) a personal challenge- I imagined I would be in a self-improvement mode.
4) one personal success (no matter how small)- a question designed to showcase the self-improvement.
5) a random thought (no matter how silly)- I’m a silly random person
Here is my current mood illustrated in a meme. -Shannon
shannon p. laws 