I wrote this on March 4 and forgot to add to the blog. So I decided to add to the post instead of having this post be only about Covid-19.

March arrived and the most recent newsletter was emailed to our mailing list and posted on this website. I returned home March 3 from visiting my mother in Austin, Texas. The weather was very different from Cleveland. I was able to take a walk almost every day in sunshine with 60-70 degree temperatures. The last day I was there a March wind blew me along on my walk with its strong gusts. I flew through Chicago on my way home and found winds there too, making a bumpy landing and a more difficult take off on my way back home. When my husband picked me up at the Cleveland airport he told me of a wind burst that lasted about 5-10 minutes just before he left for the airport. He had been concerned about our plane landing. Wind is everywhere this time of year, changing everything. Winds come in the spring to help clear away the clutter of winter, taking with it the dried leaves and branches allowing new growth to appear and thrive. It is time for plants to sprout. It’s time for us too. We’ve been hibernating all winter waiting for our time to bloom.

We may have to wait a little longer now, but make this time count. There are so many things we all say we don’t have time to do in our “normal” world. Maybe we can take the time now. Clean out the closets, organize the photos, make piles to donate when this is all over, read the books on your nightstand, find your creative side - whether painting, drawing, sewing, and so on. Glue the broken kitchen chair, start a journal of this time in history, FaceTime our children and grandchildren. This isolation and slowing down will pass and become a footnote in history just like the 1918 Spanish flu. And life will become more hectic. Every day is still a day of our lives that matters. Don’t give any of them away. Stay strong and keep in touch.