Remember on December 31st, 2019, when we were all like, “Ugh, good riddance 2019, you were the worst!!! Welcome 2020, this year’s gonna be the best!” Me too, lol.
So now it’s 2022 (aka 2020 too). Who else is finding themselves to be mentally fatigued for the past couple of years? Same. But this makes so much sense. Like, first of all, PTSD doesn’t have to be caused from inter personal relationships, physical catastrophes or war experiences. It can happen to us from slow motion stress and experiences that are so different and unexpected that our brains are not equipped to process everything.
Having almost a million people randomly die in the United States from an airborne illness is really mind blowing. Then to have a large part of the population either not care or not believe it is a double trauma whammy. Also, not seeing your co-workers, loved ones, aunts, uncles, friends, extended family and Meemaw and PaPaw and your mom and dad is really hard, sad and weird too.
Throw into that the stress of wondering when you’re going to be the one that gets it. Will you be the one that won’t survive it? I hear you saying, “Just one percent of the people that get it die Sunde, so you’ll be fine.” Really??? If I were on a plane with 300 people and the captain announced before takeoff that 3 of us, one percent of the plane, will die during the flight, are you getting off the plane or taking your chances? I thought so.
I can’t even begin to imagine all the parents that have had to home school, keep working and hold the household together, my gahd. Or all the people that have lost their jobs and livelihoods during this time and were brave enough and able enough to make the adjustments to go out there and find a new way to survive. I just want to tell you guys that I’m really proud of us. We’re doing great. We are holding it together even though it so hard sometimes. Especially right now, when you think it’s almost over and we’re going back to normal, Covid jumps out at us like the psycho that she is, stronger than ever and it’s like, Will this ever fucking end???
But it’s like the orphaned baby seal I watched get rescued on the beach the other morning. I’ve been thinking about that little baby all day. Alone on the beach, starving and cold, not knowing where her mommy was, scared to pieces. Not sure if she should dive into the stormy waters or stay in the sunshine on the beach. And then, out of nowhere, 5 men surround her and put a net over her and push her into a box and drive her away. This must have seemed like the worst fate ever. Her terror must have been unbearable. But by the end of the day she found herself safe and warm eating fish paste or whatever they feed baby seals at the marine life rescue center. She’s probably asleep right now as I write this, content and with a full belly.
And so coming into the New Year, year three of the pandemic, I’m inspired by that little baby seal. And I’m really going to try to have faith (which I am very bad at) that circumstances always shift and change. Good luck is always just a moment away.
Like Mr. Rogers said, “We must always look for the helpers.” For instance, that morning the little seal had so many helpers. Someone noticed her, someone else called the rescue. 5 people came with all of their equipment and carefully wrangled her away from the water’s edge and to safety. Dozens more will feed her, care for her and fix up any injuries and let her grow big and strong. Then they will bring her back to the same wild ocean and they will release her so she can try to have the best life possible.
That’s what we will do too. We will do the best we can by ourselves and we will have helpers and some good luck between the bad and we will remember that circumstances are always changing like the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides and we’ll just go with it and keep swimming. Just like that seal will.
Happy New Year everyone!
