I can't imagine that anyone truly feels blessed by a worldwide pandemic that's killed millions and made many more sooo sick.... We haven't seen yet the huge PTSD fallout that will come from it either

I think that maybe some measures that we have taken to care for ourselves aren't a bad thing.... I have thought I am going to continue to wipe down the groceries after Covid is over

Apparently there's been a fair bit less pollution in the world this last year

I saw my GP for the first time last week and she has 2 tots and she was saying how sad it is that they've never had a playdate or a birthday party... Her youngest has only known a world of masks

I pray that this will end before much longer Arf and without a lot more tragedy... xo

I don't feel exactly blessed by the presence of the virus, but I was initially relieved by the restrictions. I had already been making excuses to keep my son home from school, partly over concerns about the possible spread of the virus, and the restrictions and switch to distance learning gave me official permission to do that.

I wish I thought it (the pandemic) would be over soon, but I'm a little skeptical. And we are back to masks in public here, like so many other places I'm sure.....

I hope as a foster care provider you are getting respite care every once in a while.

Peace and blessings.

I admire what you’re doing Arfie. I wish an adult could have been as concerned with your welfare as a child as you are with the grandkids.
We have few restrictions here as we’re covid free at the moment for a while but I feel we’re living on borrowed time. It’s sad to see people I know lining up on both sides of the fence to try and force their views on each other. What the hell happened to live and let live? I’m one who doesn’t mind masks and social distancing as you know, it keeps people out of my face and space lol.
I too dream of escape, and no neighbors but that’s a pipe dream now. We’re not even allowed out of the state and this is the worst state for camping and countryside. Wish I had stayed up north.

None of these folks was happy dancing about people dying. They just like being able to cover their faces in public, isolating and/or the lowered social demands.

Is it my imagination, or are the young children whom have now spent half or more of their lives in the isolation of Coronaville different from children I have ever known before. These fun games won't be over until after they've told their stories.

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Oh, yes, arfie, the pandemic gave me one extra year of my teaching career. My young, lively boss at my community college had been trying to get me to take disability for my kidney disease when I got permanent damage from that psychiatrist who overprescribed me Seroquel for my PTSD nightmares.

But I come from a crooked family. As you know, my parents were deported from Peru because of laundering cocaine money through the church they pastored for a corrupt Peruvian congressman. My grandparents had to move from their home in the middle of the night because he cheated with the neighbor’s wife and the neighbor found out and came after him. He gave my grandmother a sexually transmitted disease in the process.

He “worked” (using the term loosely) for the US Postal Service and when he hit the age of 62 he faked an on the job injury to retire early with extra disability pay. Then he “recovered” miraculously and I saw how healthy he really was as he used that extra faked disability pay to finance our building him a second home in the mountains.

The rogue’s gallery of my crooked relatives goes back in my genealogical tree all the way back to 1810. I figured, then, wouldn’t it be great to be the family rebel and not even take legitimate disability when it was offered for kidney disease? What if I put in an honest day’s work my whole career and retired legitimately like most other people do, the ones I’m not related to?

In 2020 I hit the early retirement age of 62 and since it was getting harder for me to get to and from campus to teach with my kidney disease, I almost put in my papers for retirement then. But the pandemic hit, and campus was closed, and we instructors all had to teach from home via Zoom. Suddenly there was no more commute involved! I got an extra year in before retirement to prove I wasn’t just trying to get out at the first opportunity.

The pandemic made it possible for me to make my rebel point against all of the kinfolk of my past and put in an extra year’s work before retiring at 63 instead of at the first chance to at 62. It was an awesome way to go out when I did retire. Nobody in my family had ever done that in 200 years. I was the first. Thank you, corona.

Yes and no. While the Pandemic increased my students for rehabilitative Tai Chi and launched my teaching career to teach some online classes, my volunteer work has become quite scary working among the public to keep them safe, but risking my health. While we try to keep safe there is always a risk of coming in contact with COVID and other disease.

However through periods of quarantine I have been able to work on calming my anxiety,.

The sudden and complete loss of social support so soon after a major trauma which created our Foster Family felt and continues to feel more traumatic than the pre-Corona tragedy which became irrelevant in Coronaville.

The slightest implication of another shutdown still has all five of us anxious in ways I have no words to describe. It's the first time any of us have lived through a global shutdown. The 3 orphans are still trying to grasp the concepts of "Global Shutdown."

I'm still looking for the silver lining in my own Corona cloud.

Processing. . . Praying. . .

I can only imagine how complicated things must be in the States these days as the school year's start has come around with this Delta variant outbreak. Prayers and support going your way, arfie.

As complex as a State of Chaos. . .

Prayers and support needed and appreciated.

The good news is that the school year is off to a good start, despite the political chaos. I am quite impressed with how well our local educators are holding through the political pressures and conflicts. The children love their school. I don't believe they recognize Corona as any more than yet another obscure political tyrant. Me, too.

So glad the local educators where you live are managing to sort this school year's start out, arfie. I just retired from my community college this past May and I'm still in close touch with my school's coworker. 12 have covid, and then on top of that Hurricane Ida brought flooding to the area even though they're several states north of the Gulf. They had to cancel a day of classes right at the start.

I miss hugging my friends! Back in the day, I'd hug a stranger in need, even. How do you encourage someone you barely know, whose life is falling apart, and they are beyond verbal platitudes? What comfort can you give? I miss hugs. I miss hugging.

I don't like living in underlying fear. I hate that one must avert themselves from human contact and conversations We live in a world that needs unity more than any other time in my entire life and we are denied the abity to achieve this, when the pandemic was totally avoidable here in the U.S. I feel like we were forced into accepting even more modern isolation.

I am, however, not all mad about wearing a mask. I'm getting older and this is an effective way to cover lip wrinkles! Ya, silver linings aren't always huge. lol

Huge hug sweetie... I can't imagine how hard that it all must be.... Prayers sent... xo

A little weird in my own isolation chamber is that, over the course of this pandemic madness, my 5 year old foster daughter has become a compulsive drive-by hugger who gives hugs to random (to me, at least) to strangers she passes in stores, etc,, both masked and unmasked. I haven't spotted her rhyme or reason yet, but I have wondered a time or 20 if she has an instinct for spotting the people who miss hugs, terribly.

For sure her drive-by huggings have produced some comical reactions in both her victims and witnesses. Social distancing in not her strong suit.

Awesome topic Arife. In my area I see both. One that impressed me is an organization from last year that Service teenagers with a Disablilty when virtual and name it they kids are making new friends, seeing old friends, learning dance etc. Because of last year this year the virtual event double and cabins had too much participation and not enough Counselors. Because of last year they opened up to some adults but the youth participants double. I felt like because of COvid a set of disability youth grew in ways they might not have and to hear their parents or family members tells how grateful they are. It helps me to know that good can come out of bad situations. And of course abused went up for disable Children and elderly.

"Collateral Beauty" has been one of my themes lately. Horrors happen and they are horrible, but the collateral beauties which grow from those horrors are profound and well worth looking for.

The virtual boom has been interesting to watch from a safe social distance. As a grizzled old tech warhorse with hearing issues, my exposure has probably been radically different from yours. Work is a four letter word, after all. My hearing problems make participating far more work than it is worth. Zoom zoom. Closed captioning unavailable.

My foster children have not been overly impressed with the virtual offerings. The social workers, teachers and even the virtual friends seem to be competing with Dreamworks Studios. Tough competition. . . Should our education system survive this madness, their collateral beauty might be a deep passion for school. They love their Real Time school, up close and personal! ! !