Corona Dispatches 3| Beauty Amid the Pandemic

Beauty Amid the Pandemic


We are on one helluva topsy turvy  ride.

A global pandemic.

Countries’ health care and supplies are stretched to their limits.

People dying by the minute- including medical care professionals, like doctors.

We are either in strict quarantine; or
restricted by authorities to isolation.

Businesses, big & small, have shuttered.

Services are quieted down to the bare essentials- grocery stores, pharmacies and gas.

In Canada, over a million people have been laid off and applying for EI.

We are in our homes- some of us alone.
Our love ones cannot be visited.
Our dead cannot be properly buried.
Our sick are alone ...
Watching the news
We’re feeling the dread
Hearing about the Covid misery, its uncertainty and the number of dead.

Politicians deliver the daily dose
Of just how many are infected
and how many have succumbed.

And they warn of “dire times” ahead
Our heads are in a perpetual spin.
There is little win, it seems.

And so, I go out and about

capturing images wherever I go

The hushed harbours and the quiet streets
The “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign
The hearts and rainbows in the windows.


And oh, yes the bears. 


One evening, I catch sight of on eof these furry creatures in a small window.


Puling over, I rolled down the window and aimed my camera 
at the perfect green and yellow house
 with the stuffed creature sitting stoically in a small window.  


Since the Covid pandamania, bear hunts have emerged 
as a way to entertain the children, who have secluded at home due to school closures.


Parents gather their young kids out for a drive 
so they can tally all the bears they have caught sight of.

 
And then,  
I saw her...

Peering out from behind the white lace curtain she had pushed aside with her free hand.

A senior lady.

With a phone in the other hand.
Looking out at me, 
with wide eyes.


Was she be concerned I had stopped by her house?

Did she see me as a suspicious person?


And then she did something unexpected.

She beamed a big smile and waved her hand so excitedly at me.

I smiled back.

And off she went
back to her only social connection.
her phone.


And then the tear swelled up in my eyes

And my tummy took a little roll.

I was overly emotionally struck by this small gesture. 


I realised that the bears were not just for the children,

But for those isolated at home, especially our seniors.


They as just as delighted to see visitors 
and human beings outside their windows, 
as the young ones are to spot a bear.


Due to this lockdown, we are all in our own world. 
Many are devoid of social interactions, 
including visits and hugs that are so essential to our well-being.


Bear care "In the Times of a Pandemic"
has become a symbol

of connection for both the receiver and the giver.

Beauty does exists here in this upended world. 


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Coronoa Dispatches 2| Winds of Change

Coronoa Dispatches 2| Winds of Change



Collectively, we are caught up in a great wind of change 
which has unexpectedly come blowing through our lives. 


But thank Cod for the physical wind.


In times of normal, there was something about wind, as a walker, that was most aggravating.   The wicket North Atlantic winds which blows through these parts didn’t deter an outdoor venture, but it certainly dampened the spirit.


Listening to it howling against the eves outside, no issue -  
but out on the walk  path, it distracts from the calm, the purpose, the chia.
Truly, a grate on the soul. 


But the world has changed, recently – and so rapidly.


Now, the wind feels different … like a comforting friend, really. 


When my body allows, I go outside each day to greet it with exuberance. I seek its tonic -  breathing it in,  like I am sucking life and the ol’ ways itself back into the depths of my being.


This new wind friend awakes my senses, which has been dulled by droplets of anxiousness, dread, grief, change and uncertainty. It helps still the mind and
reassures that, soon, this too shall pass.


Many of us are already craving normal - and it’s only soon into this collective global rearrangement. 


Work, socials, food habits, shopping, gathering of friends and fam have all been laid aside so we do not invite the dreaded one into our lives and our lungs.  


And, we have been warned, it’s not ‘bout to come back to right-side up, very soon. These winds of change which have swept most powerfully through all our lives as human will blow for many more months to come. 


In the meantime, we all have to come into the centre of the circle 
and get real about our predicament. 
We watch with despair as the infections and the death rate continue to climb around the world. We pray for and worry about our frontline workers as we go deeper into this crisis. We do our best to preserve ourselves and one another.


In the end, we truly are all into our individual lonely hours, whether by ourselves or with family members. 


Isolated and in our heads or in our own worlds, we carry on in the best way we can.

We watch the news. Get stressed. Turn it off to pretend that all is back to the old ways. 

Some of us have become productive in new ways, 
others are lost in a whirl of nothingness.  
The days are passing as we move through this mass upheaval and health crisis.


What do I do for pandemic pleasure?


Go to the ocean

Snap, snap, snap (Best therapy )

Cut my own hair,

Snip, snip, snip (Failed experiment)

Indulge in the wine

Sip, sip, sip. (Less is better)

Wash dishes

Dip, Dip, dip.  (Infrequently as possible)



More imprtntly, each day,

I try and go back to the wind

Into the wind.

To be “With the wind”

To befriend it and ask for forgiveness for my judgement against it all these years. 


One thing is for certain, little things will help us overcome our fears and other challenges during this mass experience; and propel us forward.  
Simply things like gratitude, empathy and forgiveness will help us emerge 
to the other side in stronger shape physically, psychologically and emotionally.


I, for one, will never again throw any grief against the wind.


Proving that what you once shun, 
you may joyfully embrace 
when the wind  changes direction in your world
and upends your comfort zone.


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