Photo by Angela Kirk

When Doc was a teenager and would grumble about getting out of bed to go to church on Sunday, her dad would say, ” You can’t get to heaven on an inner spring mattress.”  It turns out he was wrong. On Sunday Doc and I watched church services streaming live over the internet while laying in bed.  During this pandemic, what use to seem strange is now becoming the new normal.

It’s now normal to practice; ” social distancing” and be chided by strangers if you don’t,  wear masks in public, douse your hands in sanitizer, stay home and isolate, wear PJ’s all day, binge watch Tiger King on Netflix and order most of your things on-line. Not to mention all the cleaning rituals you have to go through every time you touch anything. I have never seen Doc wash her hands and scrub down surfaces so much. She’s even taken to bathing me more often and I hate baths. But what’s a domestic dog to do?  It’s exhausting!

When the pandemic passes, and it will eventually, I wonder how many of the changes we have been going through will become incorporated into our culture? It is nice to see all the families playing outside together on nice spring days. I also notice humans are watching out for each other by checking in and offering to help those that need it. A crisis can bring out the best in most humans.

Now that the pace of life has slowed down we can reflect upon what we are learning from this pandemic. Doc says there is a lesson in everything if you are open to look for it. It will be interesting to see if we learn and change, or just go back to the way things were. Until then, stay safe and well.