Life in a Pandemic

We are now living in an unprecedented time. For so many of us, life is not same anymore. This pandemic has changed and shaped our lives in many ways. It has been six months since we last enjoyed a get-together in person with our friends or opened our door for our neighbors. We don’t have any of our family members living in here. So, spending time with good friends, who are more like our family, means a lot.

Kids have been home since their spring break started in mid-March. We couldn’t go for a vacation that we usually enjoy in every summer. During this entire summer break, kids didn’t even go to the park once. Our family is almost always confined to home except for my husband who needs to go to his work. When he gets back home from work, kids don’t run to their dad to hug him anymore. They don’t even go near him until he carefully changes his clothes in one corner of our garage, and takes a shower right away. At times, it feels like we are losing touches, touch of our family and friends, touch of the outer world, and touch of nature as well.

I’m a diabetic, and due to my underlying health condition, I choose to stay at home all the time. Going outside can be very stressful even after following CDC’s guidelines and taking all the safety measures. And still I remain concerned for the safety of myself and my family. The thought of not being able to be there with my kids or my husband should any of us get seriously infected by this deadly virus is crippling enough.

Everyday I pray for all my loved ones, close and distant relatives, friends, neighbors, even for the strangers all over the world. Every night before going to sleep, I thank God for our well-being and safety for that day. That’s just part of living this ‘new normal’, I suppose.

Feelings of helplessness, distraught, concern, anxiety, isolation, boredom, and even depression are a normal reaction to the pandemic and we all are going through the same experiences, more or less. Taking good care of our emotional, mental, and physical health is more important now than ever. Striking a healthy balance between the uncertainties of the current reality and our lifestyle is the key to our survival.

For us, we are blessed to have a single family home in a beautiful suburb. It’s not that big but spacious enough to accommodate the four of us comfortably without bumping into each other for which I feel immensely grateful. Space is so desired now! Every morning after I wake up, I thank God for this beautiful place that we call ‘home’ and for the people who I share this place with.

I have always been a grateful person. But Covid-19 has made me more mindful of all the little pleasures that sometimes we all take for granted. Now, I carefully look around, and I find more and more reasons to be sincerely thankful and not enough reasons to be sad.

I can’t thank God enough for every single breath I’m taking during this hour of extreme uncertainty, for the good health and well-being of my loved ones, for still having a job (even with a big salary cut) to support our family, for the fresh hot meals prepared daily with love and being served on the table, for the ability to enjoy each other’s company and share lots of laughter (and a few tears) together, and for the unshaken faith we have in God’s divine wisdom that makes things easier for us to deal with.

We are all in this together. Our stories may be different and our ways of dealing with our personal loss, pain, or sufferings may be unique, too. But we are all facing the same enemy, same fear. No one knows when we will feel safe again to resume our carefree normal life.

While the future looks so blurry and shapeless, we can still give some meaning to our lives by being fully present at this very moment, by cultivating more love and understanding, by nurturing our relationships with our family members and loved ones, by practicing self-care, by doing things that we have always wanted to do but couldn’t pause and manage time for, and by giving hope to those who are living in constant pain and fear.

Pandemic or no pandemic, life goes on. And this too shall pass. Let’s not forget to live before we actually leave this beautiful world.

Love,

Sonia