Quarantine Life: We are connected

WE ARE CONNECTED, THIS WILL PASS, AND WE WILL HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT WE MEAN TO EACHOTHER.

Yes, fancy went out of the window. So did the fancy camera. The image below (my daughter's dinner) is from my phone.

In quarantined life, things look and feel entirely new. Not a pleasant new but a WTH kind of new. I am finding myself lost every day like the rest of the world.

I must have checked the freezer every day for months now; planning, saving, adapting, and worried about every meal. Can I stretch it all for the foreseeable future? Can I not send my husband into the war zone which is what the front lines have become to find supplies? Why didn't I think about buying dry milk? Well, because we don't use it so how could I have known to buy it? How could I have known our dairy farmers would be pouring milk into the gutter while we can't get milk at the store?

Well, I did know--kind of, 'cause Granny told me. She was born in 1900 and passed in 1984, she raised me a good deal of my childhood. Scared the bejesus out of me when she told stories of the world wars (she lived through 2) and the German occupation of Denmark. Stories, I told myself, just stories. It won't happen today, it cannot happen today! WTH, it's happening today! Not the strife of humans fighting humans but the pandemic is an evil SOAB sneaking into the weak and destroying whole world structures. Ok, rant over.

I am 65, which means I have a lot of experience in life--experience in every scenario imaginable, but, not this one. I was working as a travel office manager when the Towers fell. All I could say to myself, and I remember it clearly, was "the world has changed." Then I ran to my office and started the process of getting all my companies' people back from all over the world as fast as I could. I worked while everything went into lockdown in businesses all around me during SARS, and my husband had to install equipment in a hospital wearing a homemade hazmat suit. I was working when the power grid went down and we lost all power in the Eastern seaboard for days and days. Why recount this? Because even though this horrible killer is amidst us there is far more to be thankful for than scared about. Let me list some so we can all breathe.

1. We are connected. Don't add to the panic, stay apart, and help save lives.

2. We have food in the house. Thank the food chain and the essential workers.

3. We have water coming out of the tap. Thank the water companies and their people.

4. We have electricity so we can run our home, and access the Internet. Thank the power company and the Internet people.

5. We have gas for our stove and furnace. Thank the gas company and their employees.

6. We have a healthcare system!! Thank the workers who are fighting the desperate fight to keep us alive. Bless each and every one of you.



 We have enough.

We have to stay inside and we will be safe, until...

We have to wash our hands and stay away from others, until...

We can wait, until...

We have to help each other in new and interesting ways without being in proximity to each other. Ok I can do that and so can you.

We have the internet so really, are we alone? No, we are a human community capable of holding each other up in these times of WTH!!! Ok I can do that and so can you.

We can learn anything! Even how to become more self-efficient and grow a little food for ourselves because we have the YouTubers and all their wisdom to draw from. I have decided its time to make more food videos to help educate as well.

Larry Hall made so many videos. It was years ago and he has left us but if you want to grow food in a bucket, he's the guy I learned the most from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRQzhFBCot4

This is not like before when we would have been alone and without news and then suddenly people started passing away and no one knew what was happening and the banks closed and the government sent troops and there was no food in the stores. Since we have social media, nothing happens we can completely be kept in the dark about. It can be scary knowing what's happening but not knowing and dying is far, far worse.

Summer will come. Stay inside and wait. Summer will come. Spend time learning, not being scared. If you need help, make or join a group like we have in my part of the world "Caremongers." They will help.

~ Cookin Mum