I know that we have all suffered from Covid-19 fatigue in some way, shape or form. If you are anything like me, you listened intently during those first few press conferences in March while simultaneously watching your investment values shrink. You may even have done some of your own research at that time. We were all eager to learn as much as we could about this virus as it was becoming a pandemic. As the virus was taking form in front of our very eyes, I realized that it was much more serious than I had first thought. Regardless, I was convinced that we would flatten the curve, have an interesting summer, and be back to normal by this point in the year.
As you can plainly see, we are not back to normal. It appears that the finish line is once again moved down the field and people are speculating as to when we may get back to “normal.” I gave up guessing and have hopes that it will be sometime next year. Of course, I am open to the possibility that it will not be.
My point to this blog is that we are all suffering from the fatigue of not knowing and a set of seemingly shifting rules and landscape. We are not used to such an open-ended disruption to our day to day activity. We are pretty adaptable, but that adaptation can get old after a while.
Rather than let our guard down and get sloppy with our own safety and health, it is time to persevere with reserves we didn’t know we had. It is time to keep our chins up (our collective chin, I was not implying that you had more than one chin). We can do it. It reminds me of the signs during WWII in the UK, “Keep calm and carry on.” Great advice.
I have a friend who has down syndrome and I think she was feeling very much like I am today. I pulled the following from her FaceBook page, “hi everyone, how are you doing? i miss you. please understand that all of you are all been though a lot lately. what you guys need to do right now is to stay positive and also do some breathing as well it works a lot you will feel lot better.” She captured my mood perfectly. I miss my friends. I am aware that we are all going through a lot right now, and I feel the despair and despondency of our present state. Then, I happen to read her words, which spoke to me, as did the sunshine that seemed like a hug from a long-lost friend.
I know that your neck may be sore from the effort it takes to keep your chin up but keep working it. Keep your chin up. We will get through this and how sweet it will be on the other side. Be gentle and kind to one another. Stay calm and carry on.