Getting back to normal used to mean unpacking from a vacation; or, putting away Christmas decorations and heading into a new year. It was a bittersweet necessity.

Now getting back to normal is  almost an impossible dream. Returning to the way our life was mid-March 2020 can’t happen; we are different in ways I could not have imagined our becoming.

And that’s not all bad.

I’ve done more painting in the past six months than I ever did in my whole life, and I think that includes coloring books when I was a kid.

going to extremes

We have done more reading, and written more notes – longhand – than we might have done if not quarantined.

Getting fenced in has meant that Doug and I have picked up the threads of a few friendships that time was unraveling.

We’ve kept up with walking, and eating sensibly; we’ve maintained but adapted worship and prayer to the changes that the pandemic has imposed on our community.

Yes, we have spent many hours on Facebook.  For better or worse, we socialize in cyberspace. And manners here  we  have learned are as important here as they are in other people’s living rooms.

“Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude.”~Maurice Baring

The Three W’s are how we get back to somewhat normal. However face it:

Things ain’t what they used to be and probably never was. ~Will Rogers

Maybe though a time will come when we are done with Covid-19, and yet we are still  mindful of simple pleasures, and opportunities to be kind; grateful for freedoms we had taken for granted, and alert to care for people.

from Garden of Bright Images

On our anniversary, Doug wondered how he would have reacted had the minister said to us, during the   pre-marital counseling, you will experience a kind of long-term joint but solitary confinement. In 1972, I could never have imagined what a lock-down would feel like.

One or two nights, I could imagine maybe; but weeks – months?

My better half graciously added, “I couldn’t imagine it without you.”

See why he’s still my boyfriend? Lol!