A Retrospective

Hello Lovelies! Mornings (although almost afternoon at this point) allow for optimism. The rest of the day hasn't intruded on my sense of fulfillment and well-being yet, so I'm feeling pretty good about things right now, though that could change. It frequently DOES, once the world has had a chance to get its hooks in you. But after 2 weeks in my apartment, only leaving to pick up packages (or deliveries from wonderful friends) right outside the door--I feel like I've gotten this Lockdown thing--on lock! I have a meal delivery service that has taken an enormous part of the grocery burden off the usual service I use. And I've been freezing a lot of those meals for the "lean months"--when I think there's a chance that all of us might have to really dig into our stores for food. We don't know WHAT'S gonna happen, do we? So I've decided I'd rather be prepared than not, even if things never get that dire. Not to mention, if this crisis has taught us anything, it's that we need to be as self-reliant as possible, because no one is going to sweep in and save us. We're more or less on our own. Which is how I like it. And I have seen countless examples of people's willingness to help each other! And countless random acts of kindness. The world is healing--somewhat painfully, a little bit slowly--but isn't it a remarkable side-effect of a Virus that it should cure what really ailed us? A dear friend in California remarked that the skies in LA are beautiful! Now to be fair, I never thought they WEREN'T beautiful. To me, the entire state of California is a glorious stained-glass mosaic of vivid beauty unlike anything out here in the cold, gray Midwest. But it made me so happy to hear that! Happy for Californians who've had to put up with smog for so long, but also really happy for the world. Remember how scientists were all doom and gloom that it was very close to "zero hour" to save the environment, and they predicted that in no time, we would not be able to pull Nature back from the brink of irreversible disaster? Co-Vid may have just bought us time:) Astonishing to me when I think about it that way. Plus, maybe the natural world so often out of reach of the Disabled community because it's not accessible--will become accessible to us as beautiful greenery and flowers and the way things should be--comes to us:) The birdsong was the first thing I noticed. So many more birds! And they sing all day and all night now, whereas before the world turned upside-down, the birds were too afraid to sing most of the day. For me the happiest sign of Nature's return will always be the fact that there were dolphins in the Venice, Italy canals. What more beautiful and hopeful sign of a changing world could there BE? And I believe that it's the way things SHOULD be. Humans were probably never supposed to be as dominant as we have been. Sure, yes, there were things we were supposed to accomplish to further the species--better ways of getting food, domesticating animals as companions, building homes in the wilderness so we'd have somewhere to sleep--but I really think this step back is exactly what we needed to re-prioritize. Now we can see more clearly--just like the skies in California--what went wrong.