I was hopeful last July, when I made #10 in his series of posts about Covid and Quarantine, that we were out of the woods. In many ways we are but life is still very far from normal. Here in California (and in some places across the USA; it depends on the State) we still wear masks inside for shopping, events and in school. But kids are back in person. Yahoo! Restaurants are open again and it has been such welcomed event, to meet friends, to break bread and catch up. I have only gone out a few times but it was both refreshing to get out and odd because we were cooped up so long. I even resumed our book club again and we met three times for outdoor dining and plan to do indoor next time again. I was thrilled to get out and talk books but I also felt it was good modeling in self-care for the girls.
There are concerts happening and folks are traveling again (we never really stopped, having made a couple of trips to get Nana and to go to Hawaii). Amara started High School and is doing sports for the first time. But she had to start with wearing masks, while running and playing soccer (thankfully that ended). When folks come over (a rare event), we have them wear a mask inside. We still are not sure if we or they are safe and don't want to take any chances. But...many are still not vaccinated and there are new variants on the rise. With the first day of Winter today, the cases are high, hospital intakes increasing, we are far from out of the woods from this pandemic. And still, our family tries to move forward as best as we can.
Getting out over the past month has included some fun and memorable times. We took a day trip to Apple Hill later in September, had an outdoor Girl Scout event at Camp Bothin in Ocober, went trick or treating later than month and Don and I even went to General Hospital event up in Sacramento for the day. We had not been out together in more than two years! We even had Thanksgiving this year with Don's side of the family. Nana came for ten days and joined us. While she was visiting, she took Amara, Havana and Tamsin (who has been the only kid in our house the entire pandemic) to the movies. There were only about six people in the theatre but it was a huge milestone to see the Big Screen again . We took a road trip to both Socal and Norcal in August including a visit to Universal Studios. Since starting Bentley, Amara has done some safe socializing with her new pals from school (hanging out in Berkeley, in backyards). Havana has made new friends at school but they have not socialized outside of school yet. She is more content to stay at home, read, play with the cats and watch movies.
We have for sure been busier than we had been for the past eighteen months. And still, I happily remain working from home. When the kids are done with school and sports, we are for the most part still at home. I spend almost all my time in the house, unless we do some outing but mostly it's driving the kids to and from school. So when the once a month book club occurs, or a day trip to the foothills was on planned, it feels like I am venturing out to something much more exciting and adventurous.
Our family also experienced a tremendous loss these past few months. Our beloved grandmother/great abulea Melba transitioned. I traveled to Miami to see my side of the family. The kids and Don could not go with school and all (plus the funeral arrangements were all up in the air.) Then I went on to a long planned trip to NOLA with my sister Kim and some friends for some milestone October birthdays. I had long talks with the girls about the dualities of life; death and celebrations of birth. Unexpected changes and going with the flow; of cherishing life as much as we can. If anything, Covid has also taught us those very valuable lessons.
What a strange time of history we are in. We have gone almost two years of mostly self-isolation or limited circles. We are unsure when this will change and that is unsettling. To say our children will never forget this time, is an understatement. Covid has changed all our lives. We are cautious, more introverted, more grateful, more grumpy. But like everything in this life, there is a Divine Order and so there are many things are play. There has been much time for soul searching, purging and cleaning our physical environments, getting creative with time and space, figuring out what is important and how we want to move forward as a human race. There is (too) much division. Something that has always plagued human kind but I am hopeful that these times are the start of transformation. Before I even got pregnant, I invited forth souls who wanted to be part of the transformation process that we need; for souls who want to be good, helpful, citizens of the planet. So with that in mind, I hope for my two small gems, these crazy Covid times have planted seeds that will one day sprout good change in the world. For now though, we move forward one day at a pandemic time.
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