With the mutations beginning and all of the new understandings about fully airborne they were only guessing about months ago, humans are in a steep learning curve.
Stay strong and try to be happy when ever you can and filled with the faith that "this too shall pass" and "everything happens for reason". Platitudes were created for a mind over matter purpose.
We just need to be there for our families and try our best to be the heart of our homes.
Its a major crisis point but we've all had those and been in them before. We may have times of darkness and despair but as the saying goes it's all darkest before the dawn and our dawning is that we are birthing a new world.
Bit bit bit points of light come in, joy takes over sorrow. We can all get through this. We just don't and won't like it.
And the one thing we have all learned here is that fate can turn in a heartbeat. So many things are sensed and came true but many, many more never happened even when many here saw them, felt them and agreed upon them.
Keep the faith and hold on tight.
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@michele-b - needed the pep talk today. Thank you! All the articles and chatter about schools opening this fall really felt overwhelming today. So many things to consider.
@carmen - definitely feel you on this. So horrible that it may take that to wake people up. *shiver*
I feel "lucky" being a teacher who is relatively healthy and who doesn't have anyone at home with health problems. If I knew that I was going back into a classroom KNOWING that I was already at an increased risk or even WORSE- that I could bring something home that could threaten my family- I doubt I would even be able to sleep at night with worry about school starting back. With all that being said, I am also a 25 year teaching veteran. I'm not quite 50, but I'm no spring chicken either. I'm a bit overweight. I mean- who knows, maybe I am a prime target? I am willing to go back knowing that others will not be able to go, so I feel like I am in a better position to do it, but maybe I am being foolish to think this way. I heard Delores Umbridge (Betsy) speak today and I have ZERO faith that she has any interest in the health or safety of students or staff in our schools. As a matter of fact, she spent a couple of minutes blasting teachers for the job we did in the spring. Screw you, Betsy. I digress. Anyhoo- It is an impossible situation for us, really. Thank goodness I live in a state with a smart and kind governor who is looking out for us. If Trump holds funds, it will hurt schools though. A LOT. I live in a rural area. My school has around 60% free and reduced lunch, so we get a chunk of our funding from Title 1. (And we use it wisely). If that money is held up, it will sting. We will probably lose teachers (needlessly). Just another example of a$$hats in power positions playing politics with our children and (I guess in this case) literally- all of our lives. Sorry for the language. I get really frustrated about this sometimes. What they are doing is NOT okay.
I am a former teacher. I left the profession when I had children because I knew I could not devote the time and attention I needed to both teach and parent well at the same time. My children won hands down. I instead volunteered extensively at their schools ,on committees and in the classroom helping students who were falling behind catch up. This also allowed me to kept unto date with educational trends. I know some excellent teachers who are also excellent parents. I felt I would not have enough energy or time to give fully to both.
Same here. I was an English teacher in a private, college-prep high school - the workload was immense. Constantly grading essays and papers. I knew I could not teach full-time after having children, but my admiration and respect for those who do are boundless.
I cannot imagine the anxiety and confusion teachers are feeling right now as they face choosing between their careers or their health. I anticipate many will choose to retire or will otherwise leave the profession, and a teacher shortage may be the end result.
My daughter is a member of a number of educator message boards. Some are virtual music teaching board, some our current state of AZ educator boards some in her Texas educator boards.
A number of teachers have said they will quit or retire if forced to teach in person when school starts. Many of those are music teachers or teachers who are middle/school or high school and teach over 100 students a week. Elementary school special teachers ( art, music and p.e.) teach the entire school. She saw over 600 different students each week last year. She will see over 500 different A teacher in contact with 26 students each week is in a dramatically different position than a teacher making direct contact with 500 or 600 students each week.
She is aware of some districts in our nation cancelling all "specials" for the upcoming school year. I am not sure that is because of the high student contact count or something else but it happened after teachers signed their contracts for the upcoming year.
I believe those kids NEED specials now more than ever.
Interesting Sistermoon that a few of us here are former teachers like you, Michele and yours truly. I wonder how many currently teach besides Jaidy.
@Jaidy ,
I send you my love. I have so much respect for you and other educators trying to figure out how to raise families and teach during these times. . May your Fall be filled with many blessings and may you and your family stay healthy.
This is a dream I had a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if this is the best place to post it but I feel it is about the covid-19 and society...some parts of it may be referring to my own feelings about this time...
I am one of many mental patients in the mental health wing of a large hospital. We sit around and comfort each other like a family. We care for each other and try to keep abreast of the news about an illness that started appearing in different parts of the hospital. One person says there is a rumor of someone coming out of surgery and then coming down with the “illness”. I see an image in the dream like I am imagining an obese patient coming out of surgery and swelling up and looking stiff and large. The person seems helpless after surgery. The image reminds me later when I am awake of the picture of the patient in the game “Operation” which I played as a child.
https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Operation
Despite knowing this is a mental wing of the hospital I feel like we are normal people who are just trying to survive difficult times as we comfort each other and help each other. I sit in a large lounge-type room with a nice older woman and she remarks how small and old the TVs are. I look at two different corners of the room and one corner has a small flat screen TV and the other corner has a tiny block style TV or cathode ray television.
I meet a man with a small child and decide to go out of the hospital with him and help him shop for food. We go to a small grocery store and head back to the hospital. We enter a large meeting room with a very large rectangular table which I think maybe was 2-3 rectangular tables lined up end to end with chairs all around. On the far wall is a large big flat screen TV playing the news. There are many concerned faces on the people already there watching. I try to find a chair to sit on and the one I grab has no legs, so I end up sitting almost on the floor and I feel very uncomfortable and weird because everyone else has a chair with legs. I wake up.
I still don’t have a clue what a lot of this dream means but I am pretty sure it is about Covid-19. The overall theme to the dream to me was people being kind to each other as they try to get through these difficult times. Only by being kind could they find comfort in each other and imagine that someday things would be better. Everyone helping someone and smiling at someone--even making polite conversation when there wasn’t much to discuss that was very pleasant. It felt sort of surreal to me later after I woke up to know the wing I was in was for the “mentally imbalanced” people, yet we were so considerate, kind and cohesive as a group…we we no longer the “norm” we were unusual. This suggests that the “normal” people in the world during these strange times of Covid-19 may be unkind, non-cohesive and inconsiderate…
I felt uncomfortable in the end of the dream sitting on the chair with no legs. Maybe this is a metaphor for something in my personal life, maybe it represents something else in general. I am not sure what it means. I seemed to be on the floor with the dirt. It was weird. I was under the table and felt a little lost. I couldn’t see the TV screen. I haven’t figured this part out. Yet when I woke up the overall feeling was good, because the people in the dream were so kind to each other. Perhaps it means watching too much news or internet videos about Coronavirus could be uncomfortable and leave a person feeling lost? Or maybe I personally feel a little lost watching the pandemic play out in the media, seeing all the unkindness in the world?
Bless you for thinking about all teachers as well as being a light for all our children.
I LOVE your name for Betsy. It is perfect actually.
We really know little about this virus right now. Even our younger people who have had the virus aren't out of the woods for issues popping up in their later life.
Remote learning isn't great, but I think we need to ut it on the table front and center, especially for states with rising Covid rates. SO many people are asymptomatic and super spreaders.
I just realized after posting this dream that the game "Operation" probably represents all the different treatments that doctors are trying in desperation to save the patients. In the game there are many different "operations" or parts to remove from the body of the fictional patient. It is a pretty good metaphor, don't you think? They have to struggle and guess which treatment is best for each patient to save their lives and yet the patients often still die.
Yes it is a great metaphor. Also, many patients have different issues that present in different areas of the body. Similar to the "operation" game patient. Thank you for sharing the dream. I wonder if the chair has anything too do with lack of support?
Thank you for sharing your dream. Very interesting. I agree with @lovendures that maybe the chair has something to do with lack of support. I kept thinking "getting the legs knocked out from under you" when you described that part. So maybe something that happens to further undercut something?
I totally agree about the virus and how little we know. More comes out everyday about different affects long-term.
@honeybee - I have kids and we have also referred to Betsy as Umbridge (kindred spirits, we are, I think!) :) I was also really worked up yesterday after seeing/reading about what the administration said about school. It is unconscionable to have her saying schools must open up, full-time, no matter what, and Pence literally saying we shouldn't listen to the CDC (during a pandemic!) about how to open schools. I am also, fortunately, in a state where I know the governor is looking out for us (Michigan) and am confident she will make the hard decisions about school, if needed.
Thanks Lovendures and CC21 for the suggestion of the meaning for the chair with no legs being "lack of support"...I will have to think on that for a bit.
As an aside, it find it interesting that the webpage I linked to says that in 2004 a new ailment was added to the game as a plastic part to remove. It is listed as Brain Freeze: an ice-cream cone located in the brain ($600). Refers to the experience of "brain freeze", a headache felt after eating frozen desserts and iced drinks too quickly. Now we learn that covid-19 patients can have neurological issues and brain damage as well as all the other problems.
@lovendures to all those in the education field I would just like to send my love, prayers and support to all. This pandemic reveals what truly is essential. Why don’t we support them more, I have no idea. I hope things change and they get the support they need. Doing so would benefit the students also. It’s so sad and frightening to see what’s happening.
I realize this post isn’t about covid but with schools being front and center right now it’s a cause for concern. I have two college aged kids and things are changing weekly. I have so much respect for their professors because they are losing their faculty members, enduring pay cuts, but still provided the very best they could trying to get the kids through the semester in this new way of teaching. All within a few weeks They have my respect. They put the needs of their students first. That’s dedication.
Just raising my hand. I was a teacher too. My mother was a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher (fun side note - when I was in H.S. the principal of the school had been a student of my grandmother's!).
1. Taught in a high end private elementary school in Manhattan.
2. Head classroom teacher in elementary public schools in the Bronx. This included the "crack epidemic kids."
3. As a speech pathologist, started my career in a semi-private school (a UCP) that was entirely for special needs kids of all types (from mild physical challenges all the way through to non-verbal and psychotic).
4. Continued in that career working in early intervention - going to homes to teach kids and their families individually.
My education career covered a wide range of experiences, before I switched over to the healthcare side of things, which suited me better. The education system in this country has been under attack for years, but accelerated in the 80s.
I woke up this morning with that one word on my mind again: GENOCIDE.
Genocide - it's not just for the elderly anymore. Cruella deVos and the Regime are contributing to this genocide by leveraging federal funds against the states. I believe [again] this is all part of the plan - which is to say they didn't plan the pandemic but how convenient.
This virus is being utilized to cull the herd. Part of it is Gaia herself saying "enough", but in the US I believe a big part of it is shrinking the population without having to spend too much money. Bullets, bombs and deploying the National Guard cost money that could otherwise be used to keep lining the pockets of the autocratic oligarchy. With a bonus for the cryptofascists in that the right-wing "Christians" are adhering to a very twisted version of their belief system because they think they will magically benefit from "the end of the world".
This virus is being utilized to cull the herd. Part of it is Gaia herself saying "enough", but in the US I believe a big part of it is shrinking the population without having to spend too much money. Bullets, bombs and deploying the National Guard cost money that could otherwise be used to keep lining the pockets of the autocratic oligarchy. With a bonus for the cryptofascists in that the right-wing "Christians" are adhering to a very twisted version of their belief system because they think they will magically benefit from "the end of the world".
Yep. I'd love to know how much they're going to end up saving in Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security alone. And that money will go right back into their own pockets.
@starpath It feels like we are all living in a mental institution, but it's the crazy people that are running it. To me it's more like living in Hotel California, we're checked in but we can never leave now that nations have put out the US Not Welcome Here signs. I understand how you feel about this being genocide. It is. It's by passive means, but it's still genocide for politico-religious purposes. I can't believe I wrote that and it's not part of a dystopian science fiction story!
One vision during meditation gives me a little hope. I saw the White House, the Capitol Building and the National Mall shrouded in deep swirling grey fog and dead vegetation, then the sun came up and did a big burst of white, glittery energy. When the light dispersed the fog, there was beautiful vegetation, the White House and the Capitol Building looked bright and clean and I could hear birds singing and bells ringing and children laughing.
I think we'll get through this. I hope it's soon!
@PamP I like your suggestion of these times being like "Hotel California" which is a song I used to enjoy a lot but is very dark if you listen closely to the lyrics.
@CC21 I thought about "getting the legs knocked out from under you" and this lead to me thinking about the double whammy of the covid shutdowns also resulting in an economic downturn and many many people losing their income sources due to it all. I also realized it could have a double meaning which might be that if I focus too much on the cruelty of it all I may be leading myself into a depressive episode which I occasionally have to deal with. It could also mean a "fall in vibration" which suggests I could lose some of my spiritual connection to my guides if I focus too much on it.
@Laura F. If you think of the Darwin awards, which sort of are cruel "tongue-in cheek" awards to "recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterility by their own actions" (Wiki), then you have to admit people supporting corrupt and stupid leaders such as Trump etc. are sort of doing "self-genocide" to themselves and the rest of us are collatoral damage...but some of us always survive to spread the love around, don't we?
"@michele-b - needed the pep talk today. Thank you! All the articles and chatter about schools opening this fall really felt overwhelming today. So many things to consider. "
You are so dear to thank me! And it's so true that so many things are happening both inside and outside of our often isolated and quarantined lives.
Getting a handle on our emotions and staying in the flow of constant change is never easy especially when the emotions triggered by our already heightened reactions can so easily inspire "Chicken Little" responses. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" remember that story?
When the collective overload is more Chicken Littles then the "we can do this" or those that are calm and collected by nature it's so easy to see and anticipate the worse. Especially when we've had too many years of those already.
A lot has happened, more will continue to happen. Its just the nature of the cycles of change and transformation.
If i think about my own life from birth to 70 all the unbelievably bad things come to mind as they are what i call frozen time conglomerates. Things that happen that are bookmarks in time. But for me they also remind me of strength and survival as not only did I get through them but i truly got stronger and stronger as the years went.
I already know i will face more catastrophic even cataclysmic times ahead but i will somehow get the strength to go through those and then eventually it will be my time to transition.
Life is always followed by death. When you look at the big picture of your life so far think about all the things that seemed like more than you could bare at the time but here each of us is now!
I think of everyone here everyday who has opened up and shared your stories and your Ives with all of us. And its such a gift to be blessed by the presence of everyone here, no matter who you are or what you share.
I haven't been posting much lately. Been on that reactive, anxiety-ridden, emotional rollercoaster that began to affect my physical health. I was feeling totally spent, which landed me in the ER. This was followed the following week by getting sick and fearing that I had Covid-19. How many of us have been there recently, when we appear to have some of the virus symptoms? Now it's not just an allergy, or fatigue, or palpitations from anxiety, or a sinus headache -- we worry. We worry not just for ourselves, but for our families and friends. If we don't have the virus we are relieved, only to wonder whether it's just a matter of time. Even if we believe we've been handling things well, it's always in the back of our minds.
Some of us feel guilty -- those of us who are able to work from home, or still have our health, or don't have to work and are financially secure, or feel we're not doing enough so we are part of the problem but don't know how to fix it ... We can find so many reasons to feel guilty. I've heard guilt called a useless emotion, but I don't entirely agree. Perhaps some of that guilt is necessary -- to remove the blinders from my eyes, reevaluate my life, how I've taken so much for granted -- especially this beautiful mother earth. And to hopefully, begin again, eyes wide open.
Many of you are in pain. I'm sorry that I haven't been there much recently, to offer more words of comfort and support. Although I haven't been posting much, please know that I've been praying for you -- all of you who have children, who are teachers and caretakers, who are front-line workers, who fear for your livelihoods, who are sick, who have lost loved ones, who are experiencing loneliness, isolation and trauma -- for every single one of you. We are in this together.
I came upon this quote just when I needed to hear it:
Let everything happen to you.
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Rainer Maria Rilke
You are my tribe, and I love you.
Oh, prayers and good thoughts to you, too, my friend! I am sorry to hear you have had such a rough time lately. Something about this summer heat and the relentlessness of the COVID stuff, politics, etc. is feeling very overwhelming to many right now. We are, indeed, all in this together and will get through it together. I am so grateful to have this group, at this time in my life and in our world's life.
I do love the quote you posted. So very true.
Love to you as well!