‘I like my new normal’

I wonder what life will be like after the pandemic. None of us know if it will be months or years from now. New habits we quickly became accustomed to may be difficult to reverse. Staying home more, hand washing, not touching each other and having groceries delivered to our homes may become part of our routine.

Because there has been nothing on my calendar for months, my daily life consists of housekeeping, caring for two pets, ordering groceries once a week, taking evening drives to get out of the house and watching Netflix. Recently I have been invited to outdoor social distancing visits. A few Zoom chats were a distraction. I recently began calling friends. Formerly I would have invited them to meet for lunch or a visit to my garden. Having a phone visit is satisfying and it doesn’t matter if I’m in old clothes or if the house is tidy. The reopening of the state–going to Phase 4 in late June–hasn’t changed my routine. I feel an overriding need to stay safe.

On Easter, I packed a picnic lunch, took a drive through the country and ate in the car parked in front of a house museum in Mt. Carroll. It was a beautiful setting and the ride home through gorgeous scenery made it a memorable day. Mother’s Day was spent at home receiving phone calls from my children. My grandson messaged greetings to me through Facebook. It wasn’t much different from all the other days in isolation.

The grief support group I lead at the Senior Resource Center is not meeting, so I call a few members to check on how they are managing. It’s certainly a challenge to isolate when living alone and grieving the loss of a husband or adult child. The one thing we all have in common is being a senior with enough life experience to cope with whatever life throws in our paths. Maybe we’ve learned patience, resilience and gratitude for the simple things from living through many changes in our long lives.

Some days, I accomplish a lot and others I spend under a blanket in my chair, feet on a stool, cat on my lap, binge watching “Grey’s Anatomy.” As I write this, I’m on season 16 but I have likely finished it by the time you read this column. When I talk to my friends, they report similar good days and others when they can’t seem to get motivated.

Thrown into the list of challenges are the reports of peaceful protests being disrupted by looters and random acts of destruction. Watching the division among Americans is most painful when it includes people ignoring medical advice to wear masks and stay away from each other. News reports tell us COVID-19 cases have soared in areas of the country that were opened first.

We, as a nation, are adapting. Some families have found creative ways to celebrate graduations and birthdays. Many people can be seen walking in local parks or biking. Church services now take many forms: in person with reduced congregations, broadcast on Facebook, or meeting in church parking lots to hear services from their cars. Family and friends go to the windows of those in care facilities, holding up pets, signs they make, and talk on their phones to cheer up their loved ones. Sometimes, they can visit in person, too.

I hope you are managing to find beauty and joy in your days of social distancing. There will be an end to this difficult time. We will have learned about ourselves and others. Most of all, we won’t take everyday life for granted.

Tait Weigel is a country lifestyle enthusiast and columnist from Freeport who was born in Galena.