There is a silver lining here. I have found that doing video chats with my friends and watching really entertaining tv shows/movies make the pain in my chest go away for just a little while. I really hope that all of you have found things that keep that bag of sugar from taking residence on your chest.
This past week was interesting to say the least. A dear family friend has COVID-19 and I'm very worried for them because they are in their 70's. Their spouse is showing symptoms as well. I am hopeful for them because they have access to medical care and are not in a city that is currently overwhelmed by cases.
I "went back to work" as well last week. Since I'm an essential employee I was required to be on campus Tuesday and Thursday. The biggest part of my job now is enrolling students and getting paper packets of homework ready. All of our high school students have school-issued Chromebooks but many of our students do not have access to wifi at home. The school made a Google form that the parent could fill out requesting a paper packet. If they couldn't fill it out on their phone, they could call the school office and we would fill it out for them. Well, apparently we did not get the word out well enough because we had about 40 parents request packets but over 100 came to pick them up. We explained the system when they picked up the packet so hopefully next week will be easier. We gave families 3 pick-up times: 1.5 hours on Monday and a total of 7.5 hours on Tuesday. During that time the parent gave us the student's name and we handed them a packet. On Thursday last week the district announced that we have too much contact with the public; we are no longer allowed to physically pass the packet to people. Instead, we will have a table with the packets on it. The packets are clearly labeled with the students name. The parents will have to, one at a time, find their student's packet and take it home. Of course this solution is not perfect but I'm glad that I will be able to stay much farther away from people. During the packet pick-up I was careful to wear gloves and sanitize my hands before and after putting on the gloves so that I at least knew it was unlikely I would catch anything from the public.
I hope that you all are taking care of yourselves! Please remember that your new "normal" might not look like other people's "normal". During this time, different people need different things: a schedule helps me but maybe it overwhelms you, starting a project around the house increases my anxiety significantly but it really helps my husband during uncertain times, I don't care if what I'm eating is healthy or not because trying to plan a grocery run is overwhelming but it might give you a sense of peace to know that you are well nourished. You do you, boo.
-Clare G. S.
Remember. . . this too shall end. This "new normal" has replaced our usual Lenten observances. We pray for our friends and family confident that God will take care of all of us. He never gives us more to handle that we can handle. You have already lived through some difficult times that were completely out of your control.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the story that Jerry Bennett told me. He was my deputy when I was at HHS. He and some buddies were tubing down a river drinking beer. (They had the beer hanging over the tube in the water which kept it very cold). As they were tubing, he noticed that there were people waving at them. He waved back. They continued waving and he continued waving hello. Very very slowly it dawned on him that the river was going faster and the people were getting closer and they were "standing" in the middle of the river. As he realized that they were standing on a bridge over a dam, the river was flowing too fast to get to the side. So, he thought, what would he want the headline in tomorrow's paper to be. . ."Boys Die Screaming in Fear" or "Boys Have Fun going to their Death." He opted for the latter. Since he was my deputy, obviously he survived--as it turned out quite easily. You may not be able to control the circumstances, you can control your reaction. Try to find something that calms you. . . meditation, quiet prayer, music, taking a walk, or such. In your case, it might be baking. Life is short. Try to enjoy it.