Whenever I talk to my friends these days and ask how they are doing, the response I get is “I am so tired, or I am exhausted or I just laid on the couch all day I couldn’t get anything done”. 

Many of us have been on some kind of lockdown since early March. The stress of trying to follow all the guidelines of social distancing or deal with the loss of business plus the loss of supplies that we need for whatever task we are attempting to try to get done is overwhelming. 

I think most of us were feeling that life is hard enough to deal with even before all this Coronavirus and fears. Now with all this additional stress on us, I wonder if our adrenals are just worn down to the last few drops. 

I’m hoping that things will soon improve and all this distancing has been helpful to reduce the pandemic. I try to remember the good things that are coming out of all this.

Such as, these days we know we should wash our hands frequently and be careful of what we touch. Our environment is enjoying the break from all of the traffic and noise we humans cause. People are interacting more and playing on their phones less. We are all more appreciative of teachers, doctors, nurses, and other front line workers.

Some of my younger friends have children at home trying to finish up their school work. While it’s tough having them at home all of the time, the upside is many of us have children who are already confident using the internet and computers and can deal with doing work at home. Still, there are some of those who have several children at home at the same time and not enough computers, and only one parent to guide them. That’s really tough on both the children and their parents. I feel for them.

During the pandemic of 1918, I don’t even know if they had any idea that you had to wash your hands to get rid of germs. I guess they had some tools at their disposal, but certainly not the kind of advanced technology available to us today.

Now we have a test that can tell you if you’re a carrier or sick even before you’re severely ill. As tiring as all this we have continued to take care of our families, reach out to our neighbors who need our help, and try to provide comfort to each other. If we remain kind and supportive of each other during times like these we can feel proud of that. 

Valentina Boonstra