not so distance distances

I stood at the kitchen counter staring out the window, enthralled by the flocks of geese descending over the barn to splash down in the swollen creek. Some birds circled lower and lower, while others dropped like a stone from high in the sky. The backdrop was an impossibly blue sky and white snow - ‘country snow’ untouched by the smog from the city.

Civilization is slowly shutting down but Nature continues in her rhythms, unphased.

Have you seen the videos of Italians hanging out their windows and off their balconies singing and playing instruments? Their whole situation is unbelievable and remote, like a bad fairytale set in another age. I think of the old copies of Hans Christian Anderson tales tucked away on a safe bookshelf and wonder what sort of story he would write if he were here.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not scared, at least not for myself. We have friends and family that are considered vulnerable and I worry for them. 

I worry a bit about my brother living in a distant city with no family nearby - what if he gets sick? Who does he have to look after him if he’s in quarantine for 14 days?

We watched part of ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ with Charleton Heston and Rex Harrison last night. It’s a (slightly camp) tale about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. It’s quite fun to watch after having been there a few months ago.

We did a bit more ‘not so distance distancing’ tonight with Pat coming over for supper. I guess we just aren’t ready to isolate ourselves! Carm hit up the grocery store also for a few things we’d run out of… not a hoarding sort of trip, more of a ‘life is as it always has been’ trip. He said some of the shelves were well picked over, but we were able to get everything that we needed. I guess not everyone hoards onions and carrots! 

It was good to have the distraction from the world. CNN spouts out scary news broken up only by commercials about who knows what. It’s all a bit overwhelming...

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”

~John Joseph Powell