May 23

Two months seem like another era, a different chapter in life. I have started a new chapter. Pandemic or Panic? It has subsided and we have adapted. I am being guided to a new future; one I may not have found. Writing has always been a passion for me. I just never had the time, or so I thought. Two months ago I wrote my first journal entry. I have written one every day since.

Recording these moments in history feels like the right thing for me to do. I hope to share these entries with future generations. I want my grandchildren to know what it was like living in the spring of 2020. We went into lockdown because of a virus. Now the question on everyone’s mind is how much longer? There is a vaccine coming, there is some treatment. There are few cases in our area.

Other parts of the world are still dealing with outbreaks. The US is in a mess because they politicize everything. At least in BC things are slowly returning to normal and the fear is subsiding. I may look back at this one day and say how naïve we are. We don’t know what is coming yet. Is there going to be the dreaded second wave? I hope we can travel to Europe for PinkPop 2021. I will continue to hope for the freedom to travel again.

People are protesting the loss of freedoms all over the world. If this threat wasn’t real I doubt that the entire planet would shutdown. Yet here we are.

Amidst all the chaos I have turned to my writing, my walking, and my gardening for my sanity. I walk every day, I write every day and I garden more than ever. Today I did all three.

Weeding the garden is a therapeutic activity. Tilling the soil has a purity that satisfies me. As I attack the weeds, it gives a sense of release. The soil turns and the plants continue to grow. Our earth is powered by the energy of the sun and the seeds we have sown. I can see the fruits of our labour stretch toward the sky. Our plants will grow and yield abundance that we can enjoy in the days, weeks and months to come.

Tonight we are joined again by our neighbours for another walk to DQ. It’s a little too handy to have Dairy Queen a fifteen-minute walk away. Yet the connection we enjoy walking with friends makes the excuse well worth the walk. Bird song fills the air as we wander down our street to our end goal. Sweet delicious ice cream. Mmmm. When we neared the highway, the traffic noise started to drown out the peace of the birds serenade.

We arrive at DQ and the line stretches across the parking lot. We give up the idea of ice cream from DQ. The Shell gas station in the parking lot has an ice cream cooler. I grab a fudgecycle and Brad has a Klondike bar. Sometimes in life we settle for something less because it’s easier. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it was just fine.

Crossing the road our friend is a rebel and leads the charge against the light. With no traffic coming it’s safe. Yet we are breaking the rules. In the interior of BC there are no cases of covid anywhere we can see. People are starting to run red lights. We are starting to ignore the rules. We feel safe. I hope that we can continue to avoid the crash. I hope that there is no racing car we don’t see that runs us over when we run the red lights.