Written on December 6th & 13th, 2020. This is a journal of my thoughts and feelings during the pandemic of COVID-19.
I thought I would do one more check-in before Christmas and the New Year begins.
I want to start this COVID Chronicle by saying I am feeling better. If you follow my chronicles regularly, you know that in my last post I was sharing how badly I have been feeling. Not to say that everything is better, but I am doing better. Or, maybe, I have just come to terms with what I am feeling and so it doesn’t feel quite so overwhelming. If there is one piece of advice I would given anyone going through a rough patch is to remember just that, it is a patch and it won’t go on forever.
Thank you to everyone who has followed along throughout my covid chronicles. It has been wonderful to hear from some of you recently about how my writing has helped you through the pandemic. But also, in general hearing from you is always really cool. When you write a blog and always have your head in the screen it can be easy to forget that it is being read and seen by other people out in the world so hearing from readers is very special.
The feedback had me thinking, what will happen when eventually COVID is over? What will happen with the Covid Chronicles? I am hoping to transition this series to a sort of life updates and journaling space where I share how I’m doing, and write in a less polished form than on the other sections of the blog. I want it to almost feel like catching up over a cup of coffee. But until then, it will stay as Covid Chronicles.
As I write this, there is a vaccine on the horizon, in fact some people have already been vaccinated. I almost feel like knocking on wood as I type the word, afraid I will somehow jinx it. While it won’t be a perfect solution, more like a slow acting Band-Aid to stop the bleeding, it gives me some hope. There is a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.
I am finding sprinkles of the Christmas magic in my days and that is helping too. If you want to know how I am trying to cultivate that Christmas spirit this year, check out my post Celebrating a Covid Christmas. It won’t be perfect but that magic will get us through. A new year just around the corner is good too. While nothing really changes when that clock strikes midnight, the new year is always an opportunity for change. There is something about that new number being tacked on.
Lastly, I will leave you with a very 2020 story.
Every year my husband and I take Christmas photos. It was a tradition I started in our first apartment together for our first Christmas that we actually spent together about 4 years ago. And when I say I started it, it’s because I forced him to take them with me. Every year since, I pick out our outfits and we take a festive photo to commemorate the year.
So, this year was mostly the same. I spent days thinking about what we would wear and how I would frame the photo this year. I was also brainstorming how we could get all three fur-kids in the picture, a feat we had yet to achieve in years passed.
On Saturday we had set aside time to take the pictures and my husband was prepared and promised to be a good sport. It was destined to be the best photo session yet right? Well, in true 2020 fashion it went terribly. My curls fell in moments, the cats and dog didn’t want anything to do with us, the lighting was bad, the camera angle wouldn’t work, and my outfit made my sweat buckets in moments.
The photos are not great and I was so disappointed because I had really been looking forward to our little tradition. A beautiful picture in such an ugly year. Like the good husband he is, he offered to redo the photo shoot next weekend. But, I’ve decided to keep them and not retake them. They are perfect photos to remember 2020 by. Just another reminder that our traditions might not be the same this year but there is still fun to be had even if it’s just laughing at the chaos.
Write soon,
Hannah B.L.
HBLogs 