This is a very challenging time for the entire world, as we are all suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic. Every day, more cases appear around the globe. Watching news brings fearfulness. Our daily life is changed and we don’t know when it will end. The beginning of the COVID-19 was different for all of us. It seemed far away until it directly impacted our country, states, cities, and our daily life.
On Saturday, February 29th, I heard about the first case in the USA. Monday is my usual grocery shopping day and on March 2nd I saw empty shelves of hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, and cold medicine. It felt very strange to not be able to purchase these necessary items in a major grocery store, in a suburb of Washington D.C. As a child growing up in the Soviet Union, I experienced empty shelves at stores. It is one of my childhood nightmares, which I will never be able to forget. I was always ashamed of the sarcastic American joke that there was no toilet paper in the Soviet Union. Right now, there is no toilet paper in the American stores, as well. It is not a joke anymore; rather, it is the reality of a chaotic response to a pandemic.
I felt even more confused when I wasn’t able to place an order online, because hand sanitizer was completely out of stock. One of my thoughts was, what would the next few weeks look like? Would it be all over soon? Would we feel in hindsight that we had overreacted because we started to panic too soon, or was it just the beginning of something we did not understand?
Realistically, I did not have time to answer these questions. My daily routine of being a mother, wife, student, and intern was my focus.
On March 9th, it was my first day of my spring break and our family road trip. The day was sunny and warm. Spring was in the air. I could not be happier to spend the next 5 days with my family without worries of homework and assignment deadlines!
On March 14th, we returned home in the evening. In our front yard, I noticed right away some blooming daffodils, which were glowing in the darkness like a nightlight. The next morning, I noticed a new surprise. Two trees in our back yard were blooming. I thought we were back home sweet home. After the trip, the refrigerator was empty and I did not have a lot of choices for breakfast and decided to make Russian pancakes as one of my options with the ingredients at hand. My son was my helper in the kitchen. He was so excited with the cooking process that he accidentally spilled half of the batter. I tried to be creative and mixed the rest of batter with water, because we were out of milk and eggs. The pancakes were saved and we got ready to go to the grocery store.
I was not prepared to see empty shelves throughout the store. In the past, I had occasionally seen empty shelves during weather emergencies, such as tornados in Georgia, snow storms in Massachusetts, and flooding in North Carolina. The biggest difference was that shortages were temporary, but a pandemic is a different story...
Closing schools and businesses, extending spring break, distance learning and teleworking, travel cancellation, and other measures mean that everyone is forced to put their lives on hold and stay at home. This is our new reality for the time being. There is only one thing that remains unchanged. Spring is still in the air! The flowers are blooming, leaves are appearing on trees, birds are singing, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and a warm wind is blowing.
We will get through this challenge together once we realize that our planet is not that big, and that we are all connected. The coronavirus is invisible to human eye. What we see is its effect on our health, our life and our reactions in this critical situation. If the fear, anger, frustration, blame (be it the Chinese, Russians, or Trump) increase during this quarantine period, it will destroy us emotionally and physically. Cooperation and respect are values that endure, even during a crisis.
Please stay safe and healthy, follow guidelines, and remember about our connectedness to nature that we all share!
Prayers and Blessings to All of You,
Kay
