Have you noticed how people passing no longer ask, “How are you?” Instead they gaze at the ground and measure off 6 feet to assure compliance with corona-lockdown.
We don’t comment about the weather: If it’s overcast, it deepens our dark mood. If it’s sunny, we regret that we can’t safely recreate outdoors.
The ubiquitous TV used to allay boredom is now boring, and reality TV shows are nowhere CLOSE to our current reality.
We’re all in this together…and alone.
My usual response to serious stress is to crawl under the covers, curl up in the fetal position, and suck my thumb. A therapist once told me that we revert to a childhood behavior that once comforted us. There’s never been a time in my life such as this.
Prone to melancholy on a normal day, I finally roused myself this morning and told myself, “Enough is enough!” I wrote down my new mantra: No one and NO thing is going to keep me from taking care of myself.
I took to heart the words of Marion Roach Smith, memoir guru, who advised young women graduating from high school to always have a pair of red shoes in the ready and to put on lipstick.
Even though I left high school in the dust a long time ago, and since I can’t safely leave my house, I was inspired to put lipstick on every morning anyway and wear my earrings -- not for nothing my ears are pierced. I’ve made a habit of refreshing my lipstick throughout the day and drinking a glass of water before doing so -- because that is also good for my health, and doing so in that order prevents lipstick smudges on the glass.
I’m washing my hands in a conscious and thorough manner, massaging between my fingers and across my palms in another kind intention for my well-being.
I wave at my mailman every day at 4:00 because I read at the window facing the mailbox, and for regularity, the man is a rock star! I wave and give him the heart sign with my fingers and thumbs to say “thank you for your service,” and I mean it.
Simple pleasures are remarkable. Good thing to realize as we endure confinement for our own good.
I’m Sharon Nicola and that’s my perspective.