"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty."
-President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
These, my friends, are the burden-bearing, price-paying and hardship-meeting times.
Our nation, even the world, has been staggered by the virus that originated in China, known by various names but what I'll call the Wuhan flu. Unwittingly or not, this oftimes-deadly affliction has raced across the globe like a gale-driven wildfire in the Hollywood hills. I say 'unwittingly or not' because there are those who believe the Chinese Communist government purposely released a lab-enhanced, weaponized pathogen into the world with the express purpose of taking down the global economy. I don't know if that is true, but it sure has been effective against ours here in the United States and the ChiComs aren't lacking in reasons for wanting to trash the most thriving economy in existence.
It has spurred other changes which by now we're all too familiar with: social distancing (which wasn't a term anyone had ever heard at this time last year), layoffs, bar and restaurant closures, loss of income, panic-buying of toilet tissue, water and hand sanitizer...and now the 'stay at home' directives across America. Those vary from state to state.
I'm perfectly fine with that last item. Not being much of a socializer nowadays, I prefer spending time in the woods or on abandoned properties with my metal detector; its great exercise and I usually hunt alone anyway.
Motivation for this entry, though, came in the form of an opinion piece I read at 0400 this morning, written by a gal who is "grieving the life that was."
Grieving. Great sorrow over loss.
Instead of fretting and worrying over this period we're all going through, I prefer another approach:
Finding the good in it.
Period. That's it. If you can't find at least one good thing resultant of these times, you're not looking hard enough....or you're taking a great deal for granted.
Being at home has given me more time with my redheaded angel of a wife. It's provided an opportunity to accomplish a few things here at Black Gold Homestead that would otherwise have been put off due to the 'distraction' of freedom to go other places and do other things. I'm saving money by not spending it. We prepped all our flower beds (we have a lot of them) for spring yesterday. I was able to re-mount a loft door on the back side of the barn and install a lock mechanism so it can't blow open again; with Stacy home, there was also someone here should I have fallen off the extension ladder...always a distinct possibility for yours truly. Sticks and small limbs got policed up and stacked for future pit fires. I even got to work on our future kitchen ceiling light, which will be made from the top half of an old door and adorned with six Mason jars as light globes. Let me tell you, it was a chore getting that heavy door down from the top half of the barn, where a previous owner in times past decided it should be used as loft flooring.
Lockdown has also illustrated the importance of being prepared for an event of this magnitude. Not being hard-core 'preppers', we were, however, more ready to face this challenge than most others.
Loss of power, which would have cut electricity to our well pump and disabled our water supply? We have a generator and a cistern with an old-fashioned hand pump, plus we've always had several gallons of drinking water stored away. Food? Cupboards are stocked full, though we did venture out for meat and other freezer items. Heat and fuel? Plenty of nut coal for the stove (which we can also cook on) and all our fuel cans are full. Suffice it to say, too, that our home would be well-defended if society should happen to dissolve into pandemonium and lawlessness.
Stacy and I have been in contact with relatives more often than we normally would. Our one close-by neighbor, Kay, stopped yesterday while out for a walk and chatted, though at a safe distance. My bride and I even spent a little time out at our picnic table under the pergola, discussing projects we want to complete over the coming spring and summer.
Though my wife returns to work this morning (she's employed at a physician's office) there's still work to be done, and I'll enjoy doing it.
Because it is something good.
