Month: August 2021

When we last spoke, COVID was coming. So, here’s my update and soulful reckoning: for the last 18 months, I’ve been working to keep my family alive. Not writing. Working to save my family.

All manner of activity in the U.S. stopped in March of 2020, and everyone, especially parents and their support systems, had big changes to navigate and care decisions to make. My grandchildren–one in first grade, one in early preschool–came home to start various types of in-person and virtual learning, and my daughter began her work-from-home adventure. I stepped in as her Monday through Friday, “wake-up til tuck-in” helper at her home.

I’m a senior now–I turned 62 in April–so there wasn’t enough of me left after 12-hour shifts to write. I devoted my time, energy, talents and toil to our two-year-old grandson, cooking, baking, gardening, and keeping two households “picked up.” I put on makeup and dressed at my 7 A.M. alarm and drove over to our daughter’s to work. At the end of the first two weeks, I thought the new schedule would kill me: everything except my ear lobes was in screaming pain. But I slept in when I could and fiercely clung to my afternoon naps, and I got stronger. A 62-year-old Fibromyalgia survivor beat the odds, and she’s grateful. And she’ll do it again if she has to.

Our second-grader went back to her elementary school classroom this month, our toddler went to preschool, and I’m re-inventing myself, too. What a kick this Life is, right? What a kick.

Ask me about what I experienced and especially what I learned in 2020-21, and my list tends to be long. Yes, life is complicated, Love, and can be downright scary. Yes, life can be a struggle, Love, but it is a glorious fight with tremendous victories if you give it your best. Yes, life is fragile, Love, but it is also stronger than COVID, chronic illness, devastating loss and Hell itself. And worth every bead of sweat you give, every tear you shed, every answer you make to every righteous Call to Action.

All in all, I’m still the Ecstatic Appreciator I was pre-COVID. Peel away all of the fear and sadness, doubt and madness, and you’ll still find me steeped in a sweet cup of gratitude tea. I’m so grateful for my Papa Bear of a husband, for the means to maintain our home in safety and comfort, to afford doorstep delivery of food and household goods, to stay on good terms with loved ones who’re close and far away.

And after 18 months of this new normal, you ask: do you value this life? Yes, Love. I’m still deeply, truly in love with life. As much as I’ve ever been. Here’s part of how: I look for the helpers, like Mrs. Rogers taught little Fred, and I pray for their strength, prosperity and peace. Try it. Look how your neighbors are still keeping faith. Look at the healthcare warriors still in their noble fight, still at their caring work trying to heal us. Look at the activists marching in our streets, insisting we value our common humanity and align our actions with our ideals. Look at the artists and influencers who share their inspirational art, music, poetry and silly TikToks.

COVID keeps swirling around us–surging back with a Delta Variant–but we’re not giving an inch in our fight against it. We adjust because we must. Pull the kids out of school again and warm up the Virtual Learning classroom if push comes to shove. Yet, even in what appears to be retreat, we keep fighting to love and protect–in prayer without ceasing.

So today, I’m inhaling joy, exhaling fear and embracing life. And praying that, if you haven’t, you’ll get the vaccine and wear a mask. And keep saying, “Yes, Love!” to life.

With love and light,

Dr. Mell