March 2021 – Spring is arriving (at least on the West Coast) with a sense of hopefulness

After the horrendously dreadful days of 2020 and the recently attained milestone of 500,000 Covid deaths, topping the combined totals of WWI, WWII, and Vietnam, we are devastated by a monumental sense of loss. We mourn and grieve for the families with empty beds, vacant places at the dinner table, shrouded in memories of the departed; the brothers and sisters, best friends and lovers who have left us prematurely. We miss our elders whom we cherished, who did not survive.

We could scream in pain, but we have been crushed under its weight. Our energy is still low. We have been plagued with chronic anxiety, panic attacks, smoldering depression that wakes us up in the night and pings us with insomnia. There is a name now for the nightly battle, “Covid insomnia”. These are our hardships.

Unemployment, loss of income, homes forfeited. We battle to stay afloat and to maintain a sense of hope. Teens have struggled with rising suicide rates. Children have contended with a strangely unnatural world.

We mourn our isolation, our desire to hug and be hugged by our friends and associates, as a natural course of relatability that had been our lives. We have lived in a nostalgic remembrance of things past: the trips we took, the fun we had on those trips, places, people, events – all vivid in our minds as we have so long sheltered in place, stuck in the now.

A Growing Sense of Hopefulness

It is not over yet as we still need more people to be vaccinated to reach the so-called herd immunity – coupled with those who have already had Covid. We aren’t there yet, and variants loom which likely will make future booster shots necessary.

We will need to keep wearing the ubiquitous mask that hides our faces from others and must still take precautions. Covid caseloads are not falling due to the variants. There is talk of a next round of surges due to the highly contagious variants; an important time keep restrictions in place.

Yet there is brightness in the air reflecting better news. We are getting vaccinated, even with cancellations due to supply glitches. We need three million vaccinations per day to hit the herd immunity mark. We have a new, effective vaccine rolling out – Johnson & Johnson. Nursing home deaths are significantly down. Good news!

I hear of people planning and booking trips, long-awaited reunions with family and friends. We seek a new day, what we call normalcy. NORMALCY!

We are looking ahead and our despair is diminishing.

The latest reports are that the economy is heading for a boom-town phase. We want to manifest our ebullient feelings. People are getting back to work, back to activities they cherish. Schools can open with vaccinated teachers; unions are active in that struggle. Can we begin to hope as younger and younger folks will be vaccinated by summer? We can then breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The world still struggles to win this war. The international community rallies to get vaccines everywhere with Covax, a global vaccine-sharing initiative. Unfortunately, the inequities remain, as richer countries devour the supplies.

Can we feel the metaphoric blossoms of spring? More on the West Coast; but not yet in the East which is currently being bombarded with snow plus the effects of climate change, especially in Texas.

We have a new administration emphasizing the word: civility. We feel it; we are no longer bombarded; weekends are mostly empty of news and there is a calm setting in, even with daily events that can be offensive.

We have empty-time and space to wander with a sense of new freedom coming.

Spring comes and we can feel the spirit of renewal and a . We are hungry for warmth, sweetness, kindness and a sense of hopefulness.

It is coming; we sense it; we can almost touch it, feel it. We are on our way to a brighter day.