OK. You may think I am calm, cool and collected. But inside, I can fly into a rage at evidence of injustice and against those that prey on the vulnerable. In a heart beat. Ask my staff. Ask my husband. If pushed to a certain point, the gloves will come out!
It is time for the gloves to come out. What an awful process we have been forced to live with. My heart aches for people who are suffering in isolation. For people who have lost their jobs and now fear for their futures. For the graduates who deserved an prom and a carefree entrance to the next stage of their lives, who will not have that memory to share with their kids or their grandkids. To parents who are being asked to do way too much and most of all, to the lovely souls in longterm care who have suffered under unspeakable neglect all to save a dime and raise a dollar.
DON'T....EVEN...GET....ME....STARTED.
Put the gloves on and lets keep up the fight. Fear is devastating. Courage gives confidence and much needed endurance and energy. Courage is not magical. It is there for the taking. It is standing up one more time from that fetal position the world has forced you into. It is acknowledging how terrible this is, how bad you feel and choosing to reach out for help. It takes courage to do that but when you do, you will not be surprised to learn that we all feel the same way. Even better, choose to help someone else. This is the most empowering stance to take. I can see the exhaustion and the fear in the faces of my patients, my staff and in my own eyes. Personally, I long for stability, for some semblance of normal. In all of this loneliness and longing, the deep grief I felt when I lost my parents is back and I find myself missing them.
My mom....she would have handed me those boxing gloves. My dad.... he would have reached out his hand and pulled me up. I like to believe that this is why I am grieving for them, years later. I am searching for their strength and tenacity. I don't really need to search. It is there. It is in all of us. We are wired for hardship. We have built-in resilience. It is in our DNA. We have lived for decades as a society with relatively little hardship. It may be hard to find our strength to stand but we will find it.
"Stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand, stand up again." Yes, it's a scripture verse and I live by it. Oh warrior within.
End of pep talk and believe me, that pep talk was more for me than anyone else.
You know we are going to survive this and be better off on the other side. Be still. Be still. Please do not give into to the conspiracy theories. COVID 19 is a very infectious virus. It was not created by some evil, power-mongering force. It will do what other viruses have done. It will fade into the background because human kind is too brilliant to let this enemy take us down.
To cheer you:
86,000 cases in Canada but 45,000 have recovered.....take that, COVID 19.
In Guelph, 136, 136, 136, 136, 136,136, 136, 136 and 136. No new cases in 9 days.... take that too.
Four in hospital, 2 in the ICU ( 27 in hospital and 10 in the ICU just weeks ago), punch in the gut, COVID 19.
Our rolling average has crept up. We are set back but only momentarily. Folks may have gathered too much on the mother's day weekend and this past weekend too. It is so hard to resist but we will figure this out. We will find a way to enjoy the company of others and to settle back into our work spaces.....at a safe distance.
June 10th. An event.
Finding the COVID Balance – Healthcare, Emotional Health & the Economy. Where do we go from here? With guest speakers Helen Fishburn, the executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Guelph, Jim Estill, businessman and humanitarian extraordinaire and yours truly.
Save the date. Ask us your questions and help raise funds for the people I love in Lesotho as they protect themselves from COVID 19 and the folks here as we struggle emotionally and financially.
Details to follow.
We've got this folks.
Please share
REACH OUT:
For local assistance with anxiety and depression:
www.here4help.ca
CMHA WW Website: www.cmhaww.ca
Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE-247 or www.here247.ca.
And for post-secondary students, Good2Talk
https://good2talk.ca/
www.here4help.ca
CMHA WW Website: www.cmhaww.ca
Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE-247 or www.here247.ca.
And for post-secondary students, Good2Talk
https://good2talk.ca/
And to help the vulnerable.
Relief efforts in Lesotho:
Efforts in Guelph:
No comments:
Post a Comment