Well, hello new web site, and hello fellow journeymen (women) in the time of Covid. This picture pretty well shows the lens through which I viewed the pandemic after April thirteenth. I was thrown airborne over the back of our overly enthusiastic Great Dane granddog, landed on my head and knee, sustaining a concussion and a badly shattered tibial plateau.  The subsequent surgery to install metal plates and screws in a covid-filled hospital did not make the advent of this season any more reassuring.  So that’s what’s framed our last six months. What interests me, though, is that everyone I talk to has a covid story of unexpected challenge, near misses, sometimes even a hilarious life interruption. This pandemic challenges our very paradigms. It reminds me of what our parents and grandparents went through during World Wars and the Great Depression.  And, like them, we all seem to be struggling to find meaning in what’s befallen us and those we love.

Here’s my take on what happened here. I do my writing on a desktop computer in a studio at the top of a perpendicular ladder-staircase, so there would be no working on my novel for several months.  In fact, there would not even be weight bearing for two.  My husband’s world changed instantly when it happened. He went from doing nonstop zoom legal consultations to being a short order cook, a massage therapist, a shopper, an animal tender, and a traffic cop for friends bringing food. Somehow, he good-heartedly managed legal consultations betwixt all that.

What we’d planned to do while quarantined was lots of sorting and fixing up the old home place. What we got instead were heart-warming affirmations of friendship, lots of unappreciated lessons in patience, moments of unexpected tenderness, and a ton of sleepless nights.

But I healed.  I’m walking several miles a day now, am back to climbing up the steep ladder to my Cuckoo’s Nest computer and am slowly remembering where I was heading when my writing came to such a precipitant halt.

The leaves are jewel-toned here in Western North Carolina today.  So beautiful! I feel such gratitude. We’ve developed new ways of being in touch with friends and family, less satisfying but certainly resourceful ways, and sometimes, even improved ones.  MORE GRATITUDE. Each day I’m relieved and grateful for small things I took for granted: the skill of a surgeon who could fix my shattered bone, being able to stand in front of my kitchen sink and do dishes on two strong legs, being able to sleep through the night without pain. I’m staggered by the goodness of our family and friends in helping us get through this. One friend brought me lunch and then weeded my gardens!

I’m acutely aware that there’s challenge ahead both for us and our countrymen.  Still, when the small pieces of the puzzle of your life have suddenly gone missing, it’s a large miracle to gradually reclaim each odd-shaped piece. So, for these lessons, these character-building times, I am grateful.  Would love to hear your covid story.

Dershie