A friend who is an outstanding writer shared an article she wrote for her local community newsletter and gave me permission to share it with you. We all need a laugh at this time and I think the laughs you get will be more than you expected.
I thank Nancy Schaal, the author, for sharing this humorous and profound look at life during Covid-19:
Well, here we are today almost 6 months from the beginning of the pandemic, and what have we learned?
*Here’s to the gals who made wearing a hat to cover their gray roots fashionable or simply said, “what’s the heck, who cares.” For the gals who are brave enough to color their own hair at home, the store-bought coloring products became as much a desired prize as toilet paper.
*Here’s to the guys who reverted back to the 60’s and 70’s, letting their beards grow like ZZ Top and letting their hair grow, or frighteningly, allowed friends or family to give them a haircut. Oh yeah, that’s a good look. God bless the barbers and hairstylists!
*We learned that cooking and eating our own for food, day after day, after day, brought a whole new meaning to restaurant food. I learned, even as I am mostly an organic vegetarian healthy eater, that Dove chocolates and potato chips really could be dinner.
*We learned that wearing masks has become a fashion statement. We realized how bad our hearing has become when one depends upon seeing and reading others’ lips to understand what they are saying. Didn’t know I did that.
*We learned that “Sloth“ (one of the seven deadly sins) may not really be all that bad after all. I, for one, renounced the clichés “idle hands are the devil’s workshop“ and “staying busy and active keeps us young“ in favor of the lure of the couch potato. Realizing WOW, it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I am in still in my PJs or binge watching television for so long that the emitted blue light makes one’s eyes blurry was a welcome change from the hectic rat race where multitasking and how busy and stressed one is, has become a badge of honor, something to proclaim loudly.
*I proudly proclaim my irreverence to the established view of Covid isolation as a negative rather than positive. Did I brush my hair this morning?
*Lest we fall into the abyss of utter stagnation, it is now time to move on with life, release the past, and accept the new normal. One of my favorite phrases is “the nature of creation is change.” Nothing stays the same. Sometimes the changes are small and easy to accept. Others are bold and raucous, striking us at the core of our being, forcing us in a new direction. These, my friends, are the ones that make us or break us.
Whether there is a second wave of COVID-19, whether there is another coronavirus waiting in the wings, whether there is a vaccine at year end or not, life goes on, and life reveals our character. We must ask ourselves what is important and what is petty.
Life WILL be productive and fun again, maybe not exactly in the same way. I can be as stubborn as anyone when it comes to change. My comfort zone is the familiar and the tried and true. A mentor once said to me, “when we speak and act as if something were so, it becomes our reality.“ Since that can apply to good and bad experiences, don’t fear or resist the new changes. The other side of new changes is new chances. Here’s to new chances, that unpredictable element of existence.
WELL SAID BY NANCY SCHAAL.
Joy,
Mema
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