Maria and I have changed since we got together a decade ago. During those early years, we kept to ourselves, had few friends, worked all the time, helped one another to heal.
More and more, we are stepping outside of ourselves, making friends, finding community. We are hardly outgoing, but more connected to the world.
Maria and I both volunteer at our quite wonderful Food Co-Op.
I do the laundry once a week, she guards the entry to make sure no more than five people at a time are inside shopping per coronavirus restrictions
As always she sketches while she waits for people to show up. I came by to say hello. I love to see her sketching, shaded by a beach umbrella resting in a plastic jug.
Five people this week have told me how vibrant and happy she looks.
Music to my ears. It’s true.
I am touched to read that there are still places following Covid restrictions. Here in my town in south GA it is absolutely scary. Hair salons stopped following restrictions at least a month ago because nobody is enforcing it. No masks, no limit on customers, no enhanced sanitizing. My local Publix was the only store in town where the majority of the crowd was caring and science-minded folks, however, they won’t enforce the mask mandate so last week when I went in for my quick biweekly trip, 60 percent of shoppers weren’t wearing masks. They had already scrapped the one way traffic signage as well. We’ve been largely sheltering still due to my husband’s fragile lungs, so it scares me that nobody here seems to care. So much selfishness and above all, absolute lack of enforcement. People have the “I dare you to make me’ attitude, and it’s disheartening. Restaurants are packed, it’s like nothing happened. A friend who works at our ICU was telling me that they are preparing for a surge in about two weeks. I just want to retreat to a cabin in the woods and not come out until next year.