A long road ahead

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI – Like on a transatlantic flight after four hours, the quarantine in its fourth week, is also beginning to sink in. After all just like aboard that jet, you have nowhere to go. You keep putting one foot in front of the other on the long road to full recovery from the COVID-19 global crisis.

By now you have found out that you can sleep in without feeling guilty about it, you can have a full sit-down breakfast rather than grabbing a granola bar and nasty coffee at the gas station, and you are the boss of each new day. You have polished up your cooking skills, that you feel like a chef at a first-class restaurant and you acknowledge your partner at the dinner table. Your relationships either get better or worse in the quarantine.

You can schedule a zoom or a zoo room meeting to get business done in the morning, you can stretch it into the afternoon or not. You call the friends and family on your list. You are finally in charge of your own life.

The government stimulus check has arrived in your checking account at the bank; for once as promised. Instead of blowing the money, I decided to plant my seeds so I have veggies and I can also monitor time by the growth of the seedlings.

You now have time for your own well-being and your friend’s well being. You’re not killing your plants by forgetting to water them, and you can start new plants from seeds. Your dirty laundry pile is getting smaller and your clean clothes are neatly organized in orderly stacks.

All this said, your beard and your hair may be growing longer. You can also find yourself visiting the pantry with goodies more often. But, aha, you can finish reading or writing that long-forgotten book. You can spend more time on the phone with your friends.

That’s what happened to me today. I usually procrastinate before I start writing; anything serves as a good excuse. In front of my eyes I could see the TV commercial where Sam encourages “to call them, not Sam.”

I’ve been meaning to call my lifelong friend Eva from Kromeriz in Czech Republic for the last year. To my credit, I really did lose her phone number and I emailed her before Christmas without hearing back from her.

I quickly messaged her son John who connected us like a true phone operator after many years. I found out about a Czech quarantine invention. The conversation was priceless. More about that in another post.

Now, this all wouldn’t have happened if there was no COVID-19 crisis. I would have just continued to quietly think about my friend Eva without any action to “call her.”

Thanks, Sam, for connecting us.

Stay tuned for day-by-day coverage of the COVID-19 quarantine.

Watch for a story about Hastings woman infected with coronavirus. Her plea is.”

“Stay home, do not be selfish.”

Featured photo: Pixabay, coronavirus isolated.

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