The shut down has started.

Sundays usually find our street bustling with activity. We are surrounded by churches which usually have services and events ongoing throughout the day. There is usually a steady stream of cars coming and going, bells ringing, and children playing in the park behind our house while their parents chat on the sidewalk nearby.

Not today.

As we walked the dogs we noticed that several of the churches had makeshift signs on their doors alerting parishioners that services had been cancelled. The turnout for those still in operation appeared very low with people hurrying off right on the hour, no hearty handshakes, claps on the back, or hugs goodbye. No chatting on the sidewalk, no playing in the park.

It was an eerily quiet day.

The breaking news this evening is that all schools in our county are closing starting Tuesday; Monday is optional for kids to retrieve their personal belongings and assignments —they will be distance learning until mid April.

I admit, and I feel like a bit of a jerk saying so, that I have not been taking this health crisis as seriously as I probably should. I am healthy, my husband works from home and at the present I am not working outside of trying to get my house and my life in order. In other words we have very little physical contact with the outside world on a regular basis. I thought I was doing ok.

Until I woke up last night with the realization that ending up at an Elvis Festival last night was probably a careless and selfish thing to do. People are scared for their health and the health of their loved ones and I was being cavalier and indulging a whim.

To be clear, the portion of the festival that we stumbled onto was basically a small group of about twenty people in an open air park listening to an Elvis impersonator. We sat on the ground away from everyone else and didn’t stay long (my husband is not a huge fan of the King.) Even so, I realize now that it was not a very smart or sensitive thing to do and for that I apologize.

That is life I suppose. You do the best you can and when you realize you are lacking, you learn and try to do better.

So I am trying to do better.

I will be spending more time at home, no shortage of projects to be done, and less time out and about although I think solo activities are ok. Walks in the park, hiking.

I am going to look for ways to continue supporting local business for whom I am sure this is a financially scary time; I have heard people suggest going online and buying gift cards so the businesses have some income now and you can have a meal or product later when things settle down. I am also going to look into safe ways of helping the homeless and other high risk groups. I was going to donate toilet paper and soap but there is none to be found at the moment…..

These are trying and scary times. I am not sure what the answer is but I know kindness, compassion and patience are going to play a big part if we are going to make it through. I know we are going to make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. I know we are about to learn a lot about humanity and ourselves in all of the quiet times and still moments that are coming. Silence can be a powerful teacher if we listen hard enough.

Be safe everyone.