Coronavirus
COVID-19
Holding On...
Two more friends-of-friends passed away of COVID-19 this week. One in their 30’s, one in their 40’s. That brings the number of people within a couple degrees of me in my friends-circle who have passed to six that I know of.
My heart grieves for my community, and it’s still so early-on here in the US.
I wanna say this: be gentle with yourselves, okay? I am hearing a lot of friends who are feeling helpless and sad and emotional, and somehow feeling guilty or down on themselves for not being more resilient in the face of all this.
FORGIVE YOURSELF. IMMEDIATELY.
Stop expecting so much of yourself. Today.
This situation we’re in isn’t just not normal. This is completely off the charts, you guys. Like...there are very few people alive on this planet who have lived through anything like this, let alone something that is on a nearly *planet-wide scale*.
So yeah. I think it’s okay that you want to cry or crawl in a hole.
I feel you when you say that you don’t feel productive, that you want to binge watch shows and eat a lot of shitty food.
You are completely human that you want to take naps, and aren’t doing your best work or can’t focus very well.
I think it’s completely normal that you feel a little sick all the time and keep taking your temperature and wonder if you’re becoming a germaphobe/hypochondriac right now.
I relate to feeling angry or depressed or both when you keep deleting plans off your calendar, or had to cancel your vacation, or wanted to punch a wall when your work extended your return to work date from April 7th to “indefinitely”, because it meant “getting back to normal” was no longer a date on a calendar but a “who knows when?!”
You’re not okay and I’m not okay, and that’s okay.
We’re gonna have to make space for feeling shitty now. Now and for a while. We need to stop trying to slap a smile on our Instagrams, y’all. Not that I don’t want to see beautiful photos of your smiles, and spring flowers, and your puppies (please keep posting that!), but I want some realness, too, y’all.
Maybe that’s one good thing that’s gonna come out of all this immediately. The fake-ass social media world can finally come crashing down and you and me and everyone can stop working so damn hard to pretend everything is hunky dory all the time when it is abso-freaking-lutely NOT. Maybe we can have the good and the bad. Maybe we can have The Real.
I love you for your honesty right now, my friends. Those of you who are taking a moment to say “I’m not doing so hot.” You need to say it. We need to hear it. We ALL need to hold each other up. And not in a “Here, let me fix that for you,” kind of way. But a “Let’s hold space for each other” kind of way.
I’m holding all your hands right now while we all cry a little (or a lot, go ahead, here’s a tissue). Because that’s normal, and that’s healthy, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, and that’s what we’re on this planet for. Each other.
My heart grieves for my community, and it’s still so early-on here in the US.
I wanna say this: be gentle with yourselves, okay? I am hearing a lot of friends who are feeling helpless and sad and emotional, and somehow feeling guilty or down on themselves for not being more resilient in the face of all this.
FORGIVE YOURSELF. IMMEDIATELY.
Stop expecting so much of yourself. Today.
This situation we’re in isn’t just not normal. This is completely off the charts, you guys. Like...there are very few people alive on this planet who have lived through anything like this, let alone something that is on a nearly *planet-wide scale*.
So yeah. I think it’s okay that you want to cry or crawl in a hole.
I feel you when you say that you don’t feel productive, that you want to binge watch shows and eat a lot of shitty food.
You are completely human that you want to take naps, and aren’t doing your best work or can’t focus very well.
I think it’s completely normal that you feel a little sick all the time and keep taking your temperature and wonder if you’re becoming a germaphobe/hypochondriac right now.
I relate to feeling angry or depressed or both when you keep deleting plans off your calendar, or had to cancel your vacation, or wanted to punch a wall when your work extended your return to work date from April 7th to “indefinitely”, because it meant “getting back to normal” was no longer a date on a calendar but a “who knows when?!”
You’re not okay and I’m not okay, and that’s okay.
We’re gonna have to make space for feeling shitty now. Now and for a while. We need to stop trying to slap a smile on our Instagrams, y’all. Not that I don’t want to see beautiful photos of your smiles, and spring flowers, and your puppies (please keep posting that!), but I want some realness, too, y’all.
Maybe that’s one good thing that’s gonna come out of all this immediately. The fake-ass social media world can finally come crashing down and you and me and everyone can stop working so damn hard to pretend everything is hunky dory all the time when it is abso-freaking-lutely NOT. Maybe we can have the good and the bad. Maybe we can have The Real.
I love you for your honesty right now, my friends. Those of you who are taking a moment to say “I’m not doing so hot.” You need to say it. We need to hear it. We ALL need to hold each other up. And not in a “Here, let me fix that for you,” kind of way. But a “Let’s hold space for each other” kind of way.
I’m holding all your hands right now while we all cry a little (or a lot, go ahead, here’s a tissue). Because that’s normal, and that’s healthy, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, and that’s what we’re on this planet for. Each other.
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