🆆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝🅴𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢...

Today is Monday April 27, 2020.

- We are at 45 days of social isolation.

- Schools have been closed since mid March and are teaching remotely on-line. This will continue for the rest of the school year.

- There are lines / tapes inside the stores on the floors to keep people 6 feet apart.

- Bars and restaurants are open only for takeout, home delivery & pick-up.

- Parks, beaches, hiking trails and walk-in places are not accessible to the public.

- All major and minor league sports competitions have been cancelled as well as kid's sports.

- All festivals and entertainment events have been banned.

- Weddings, family celebrations and birthdays have been cancelled. Funerals limited to 10-20 people.

- People are doing drive-by parades to celebrate birthdays!

- Young kids can’t understand why they can only see grandparents & other extended family and friends on a screen or thru a window if someone visits in person or on Facetime online.

- Hugs and kisses are not exchanged.

- The churches are closed or online.

- We have to stay away from each other more than six feet.

- Shortage of disposable masks and gloves in hospitals.

- There are fewer ventilators than there should be.

- People are wearing masks, some places even REQUIRE that you wear them to enter! People are even sewing their own cloth masks for sale or donation to medical facilities.

- Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bleach, antibacterial wipes and anything Lysol or Clorox is in short supply and limited per person.... IF you can even find them!

- Stores are closing early to disinfect everything. (24 hour stores are even closing by 9pm)

- Store check outs, pharmacies and even fast food drive thru windows have added plexiglass between the employee and the customer. Have to reach around or under to pay!

- You can't find isopropyl alcohol easily. .. the supply per person is limited.

- Australia, USA, Canada and Europe have closed their borders.

- Western Australia has been divided into 9 territories & an instant $1,500 fine issued for crossing the border without a valid reason. (Transport workers, Essential services etc)

- No one is travelling for leisure. Airports empty. Tourism has the worst crisis in history.

Why do I post this?

Next year & then every year after, this status will appear in my Facebook memories feed. And it will be an annual reminder that life is precious & that nothing should be taken for granted. We are where we are with what we have. Let's be grateful.

This text is anonymous, it's not mine, but I copied because I want to remember it too.

Below is today’s blog post "🆆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝🅴𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢," it can be deemed a “response” to the above text

My heart hurt reading the above pasted text, as I imagine yours did too :( ♥ 

I don’t think any of us realize the magnitude of what we’re actually experiencing. 

Yes, we know that we are currently experiencing a global pandemic. 

We know that COVID-19 is a new disease, caused by a novel (or new) coronavirus that has not previously been seen in humans. 

We know that we are currently in quarantine.

We know that we’re social distancing. 

We know that schools are closed and all non-essential business are shut down. 

But what I believe many of us don’t know is this: 

As a society, we are experiencing what is known as a collective trauma.

For those of you who don’t know; a collective trauma is a traumatic psychological effect shared by a group of people of any size, up to and including an entire society. 

Traumatic events witnessed by an entire society can stir up collective sentiment, often resulting in a shift in that society's culture and mass actions.

Right now, this is our reality. 

We are enduring things we never have before... 

we’re being asked to:

stay in our homes, stay home from school, teach/ learn online, stay away from our grandparents & friends, wear masks to the store, amongst many other things.

Right now, sports are not occurring. 

We do not have sports. Not live, not on TV, not college, high school, premiere, travel, town or so forth. 

Right now, weddings, parties, holiday gatherings and others of the like are not occurring & if they are they’re home to 10 or less people. 

Right now, to shake someone's hand or to hug/ kiss them is the equivalent to committing a crime.

Right now, it’s more terrifying to see fellow human beings without masks on then it is to see them with masks on. 

& while it sounds like I’m describing a horror movie, I’m describing REALITY. 

I’m describing our normal. 

& perhaps more terrifying than all that you just read is this: 

we don’t have the answers on how to respond written in textbooks somewhere. 

We are writing history, 

we are writing the answers as we go & we can’t go back and correct them to change the outcome. 

Our answers are permanent and cannot be erased and changed. 

We don’t get a pre-test or rough draft. 

This is our final copy.

And together; we are lacking the resources & coping skills on how to react, process and understand all of this. 

but notice the one word that remained consistent throughout this post; WE. 

We are in this together. 

We are experiencing a COLLECTIVE trauma.

Meaning, by definition we, as a group, are experiencing trauma, 

And thus, you, the very human reading these words, are not alone. 

You are a part of WE. 

And even better, we are not alone, 

we have one another and we will be okay. 

Maybe not tomorrow or next week or even next month but soon, 

we will be okay. 

Because 

Together we will continue to endure this. 

Together, we will gradually overcome this. 

Together, we will heal. We will process. We will grieve. We will learn. We will grow. 

And we will be okay. 

Perhaps, we’ll be better than okay 

and because of this WE will be stronger, wiser, smarter, kinder, more compassionate, more understanding, more passionate, more grateful, more empathetic, and better. 

Perhaps, because of this, we will be better.  

After all, as Charles Dickens once said; “suffering has been stronger than all other teaching.... I have been bent and broken, but — I hope— into a better shape” 

- Yours Trulee <3