Globally, as of  30 October 2020, there have been 44,888,869 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,178,475 deaths, reported to WHO.

Here in my state? it was a record breaking day for new cases… and we broke the 600 death mark… when this started… and I was looking at the projections 600 wasn’t even a worst case scenario…

It is easy to plug your ears and ignore the danger.

I tried to do that when the virus was in China. I tried when it popped up in New York.

I tried when someone 8 miles from me tested positive for COVID-19.
What’s going on in the world right now isn’t hype.

No matter how much you believe in “filling your mind with only positive things,” you can’t ignore it.

The Coronavirus is real and it’s here.

What are your choices?
You can consume yourself in the news… I suppose.
This is not an encouragement to dismiss or ignore what is going on in the world…. It is days like today that I give myself this talk

“Do not write to forget. Write to remember. Write to survive. Write to see because nobody needs a light until darkness falls.”

Note to self.

Maybe I will die soon. Okay. Consider this my memoir.
Maybe a loved one will be claimed by the virus.
Maybe the economy will fall apart.

Writing brings clarity…. Clarity can help lessen panic.
In addition to the other benefits of writing during this time — it’s a quarantine-friendly activity — putting words on page validates my existence. I am here. I am breathing. I am alive. The words say so.
I cannot solve what is happening… but I can write.
Do not retreat into fear. Extend toward hope. I type on this blog every memory I can think of. Channel all emotion to the page.
Even in the valley of the shadow of death… I can write.
If there were ever a moment in history to empty myself… it is now.

Its my Tiny Pumpkins birthday… I cannot see him

Tomorrow is Halloween… I cannot give out candy

My love of activism is being tainted by protests at private homes of public servants…. and someone shot up the Health Dept.

It is hard not to feel hopeless… this is all so hard.

and so I wrote it.