Spring Healing, MO Reopened, and Other News Fresh From the Farm

Inside: The healing nature of spring, as Missouri reopens, and confessions of an introvert. Check out all the latest fresh from the farm.

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The Healing Nature of Spring

It’s spring here in the Midwest, and I find myself in a different place this year. I’ve been avoiding writing about what’s happening, not even naming it, instead calling it “all this.” I’ve been avoiding words like “pandemic” and “virus” or the more scientific terms like “Covid-19” or “coronavirus,” novel or otherwise.

I’ve done maybe a little too much social distancing at times. I’ve been upbeat, I’ve been down. I’ve been the self-designated encourager in my local Walmart. I’ve been the one who needed encouragement. I’ve been unproductive. I’ve downed an entire loaf of lemon poppy seed bread in one sitting.

I’ve grown tired of certain pesky adjectives I keep hearing: uncertain, unprecedented, chaotic, trying–anything negative inserted before the word “times.” And you can add these to the list of words I’m sick of: lockdown, PPEs, quarantine, sheltering in place. (Really? Sheltering in place? Where else am I going to stay, the Holiday Inn?)

I’m tired of masks, of people looking like they’re either going to say, “This is a hold up” or “Scalpel, nurse.” I’m tired of not seeing smiles, regardless of whether or not the person is sporting the latest designer nose-and-mouth covering.

But you know what I’ve noticed through “all this”? The trees haven’t stopped budding. The grass still needs mowing. And nobody told the birds singing outside my window about the latest projected figures–economic or viral.

The flowers keep blooming. The neighbor’s dog still barks too loud, and the squirrels are just now frolicking in the yard.

In short, the Earth–she’s still a-spinnin’.

So I’ll try to be patient with my unproductive, binge-watching, comfort-food eating self, and try to extend that courtesy to others.

After all, these are challenging times.

As Missouri Reopens

So we’ve been officially reopened for two weeks now, and while things are different, they are not as different as I had thought–and hoped. Folks are slow at getting back to life. The “experts” had said it would be so. No flipping on the light switch. More like slowly turning on a dimmer. But we’re moving forward.

I remember back in mid-March, standing in the laundry detergent aisle–the first week of facing empty shelves. A young man stood there, staring as if frozen in place.

“What to choose?” I joked. “So many choices.”

He then told me how he’d been to several stores and couldn’t find the sensitive skin baby wipes his kids needed. He didn’t know what he was going to do. His face was a mixture of fear and anger. He was young enough to be my son. I stood there with him, just listening to him talk. Offering suggestions, wishing I could do something. When I turned to go, I said, “We’ll get through this.”

He reluctantly nodded.

Fast forward two months later, Mike and me waiting in our car outside a Pizza Hut for chicken wings. There’d been a mix up with our order, and a young guy–high school aged or maybe college?–was sorting it out for us, going back and forth between the store and the parking lot. He was friendly, chatting. Something upbeat about this young guy. Hopeful. Despite it all, smiling.

And there was something about that encounter that told me we were all going to be just fine. We were moving forward. Maybe not at warp speed.

But definitely headed in the right direction.

Confessions of an Introvert

I will confess, at times, to being a little smug during “all this.” Let me explain. . .

You see, when you’re an introvert, your whole life you hear things like, “She needs to come out of her shell” or “She should get out more.” Some extroverts love to tell us what we need to do because they think we’re somehow broken, in need of repair. Or, at the very least, they feel the need to check on us. Make sure we’re okay.

And there were a lot of years I thought they were right–even though their suggestions never felt right. But then I read Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking and realized there was nothing wrong with me. And, truth be told, I got a little angry at those advice-dispensing extroverts and thought, “Oh, yeah, well maybe what you need is some quiet introspection instead of being around people all the time.” 

Enter: a nasty virus and a national shutdown. In pretty short order, many extroverts were getting just that, and going crazy, having to be confined for such long stretches. Meanwhile we introverts were just peachy–and, at times, dare I say, happy? No, not for the bad things going on, but for the extended, perfectly solid reason to stay at home–home being our “home turf,” so to speak. No having to come up with excuses for not wanting to go out.

I was happily content for weeks!

Then, somewhere around week six–yeah, it took that long–I started getting fed up with the whole situation. “I’m done,” I said to anyone who was there to hear me–Mike. Winston and Clarence (the cats). I was counting the days to Missouri reopening, arguing passionately with my cell phone or the TV when “the experts” said otherwise.

So the moral of the story? Even we introverts have our limits in our fortresses of solitude–or at least most of us. I admit it–I need people. Just much smaller doses. A little dab of socializing in between long periods of wonderful, soul-restoring introspection, quiet, and plain old alone time.

Now, to my extrovert friends, just checking on you. You doing okay?

Resources and related posts:

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Gifts of an Introvert

How to Have Hope

Finding my Pace: Slowing Down to Enjoy Life

Weekly Frames, Simple Update, and Other News Fresh From the Farm

Colorful, Mini Milestones, and Other News Fresh From the Farm

 

Past posts from this month:

All Winding Roads Lead to Nausea (2017, humor)

My 3 Essential Tips for Growing Strawberries (2017)

Crunchy Green Bean Snack (2018)

Weed Beauty, Unusual Gifts, and Other News Fresh From the Farm (2018)

How to Make Jelly From Wildflowers (2019)

How to Plant Strawberries (2019)