Globally, as of 18 February 2022, there have been 418,650,474 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,856,224 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 15 February 2022, a total of 10,279,668,555 vaccine doses have been administered.

Today our Governor held a press conference…. I who in the beginning of this all never missed a briefing. wasn’t aware of it ahead of time… part of my self care has been not watching and waiting … has been basically no “News” at all…. even the weather…. ha ha! So today I got the message that it was going to be a doozy a couple hours before it took place…. promptly forgot…. minutes before it started a different friend messaged and asked if I was watching…. so I did…. Here are the key bullets:

• By March 31st our response will transition to what we are calling a “Steady State.” Our Department of Health will spend the next six weeks refining plans they have already started to develop to help get us there.
• Some elements of the response, like testing and treatments, will transition to being the responsibility of our highly capable health care systems. This will allow our public health system to refocus on the elements of the response that a public health system would normally look after: disease surveillance, data collection and reporting, vaccinations, and public awareness.
• This is not the “end” of the pandemic. This does not mean COVID-19 is going away. Or, that as a state, we are packing up and heading home. We will continue to see cases, and outbreaks, and hospitalizations, and, unfortunately, deaths. But it does mean that we are adapting how we respond to these things.

<Insert Deep Breaths Here>

I am SO ready…. I am Vaccinated… I am Boosted! It has been 2 years…. I have focused so much on the world and community these last 2 years… that I haven’t really talked about what condition I personally am in…. So here’s a run down:

They sent “High-Risk” people home from work- That was me…. Work is critical to me… not the money (trust me LOL) but because of my auto-immune issues it really was the last thing I could do…. Cant walk much or well…. etc… you know the drill…. so work kept me out in the world…. and then it was gone. (Not the work, the out in the world part)

Determined not to lose any strength or endurance…. I launched into some yoga poses…. a stepping machine…. and a drive daily.

All that stopped.

Then the stomach cancer.

Even walking or standing in my own home became hard.

So That Stopped.

Stomach cells of doom scraped out!

Return VERY intermittently to the office.

This week I was in my two days…. Last week too…. 4 out of the last 14 days I went to the outside…. at the end of the 4th day? I broke out in rashes and sunburned joints…. To say that I have lost ability is the understatement of the decade…. I’m not mad about it… hell no… I AM ALIVE…. and I am SO HAPPY to be alive.

But

Well….

I am going to need to get some strength back….

Look… I know I wont walk well again… I understand that without a hamstring walking distances is impossible…. but I would like to be able to sit in an upright position and engage in thought and conversation without it completely draining me of strength and energy…. so I’ve got some work to do.

I’ve got A LOT of mental health work to do as well… as well as spiritual work.

Spring is coming… I say that a lot… like a Mantra…. it is my mantra… this isn’t the game of thrones people! (though it has felt like it)

I am concerned that if right now it were required of me to work in office again full time, I would have to resign… (this is just conjecture btw. none of this is happening) …

I am also concerned with how to go out into the outside and do the things I love… without the people I love…. I have lost so many….

I am committed to doing both of these things however.

Baby Steps.

Now…. Lets take that situation I have shared about myself… my life… my well being… and apply it to the world… when you (like I often do) shake your head at the madness… the foolishness… the cruelty of the world… lets pretend it is me… and help it along… be patient with it… because you love it and know it is worth it (I really am so fortunate to have people feel this way about me, including myself)

Lets have the HARD conversations from a place of love…. and with grace have them often.

Lets not give up… or throw in the towel…

Lets celebrate the fact that we are still here… a little more weak… a little more soft…. a LOT more grey…. but here none the less.

Baby Steps.

After all… like they shouted from the rooftops in the beginning….

We are in this together.