Here it is Memorial weekend, and this month doesn’t have
the feel of May. Every time I decide to put away my coat, the weather turns
nasty and without its warmth, I shiver in my boots. In my opinion, most days
have had the feeling of fall, rather than spring.
So I’m thinking that May may or may not show its sunshiny
flower growing weather this year. In typical Missouri fashion, we went from cold
and miserable to 90-degree humid weather in one day. Turn off the heat and fire up the air conditioning. It’s almost as if mid-summer followed
our fall like weather. If nothing else, up until now, the year 2020 has been downright
weird.
I’ve concluded that people may or may not take
precautions as the nation opens up after an extended period of hunkering down.
As usual, our country has found something else to divide us rather than unite
us.
The pandemic has been a life changing experience for most
of us. Our world turned upside down, but the world is round, and it will
righten itself—eventually. Whether this will happen too soon or too late
depends on the view from inside your head.
Some people don’t handle adversity well, while others see
hard times as a doorway to becoming a stronger, more determined person.
Well, now we all know that if everything shuts down, life
gets hard. Our consumerism took a hit. We discovered that we didn’t need
everything that we wanted. Scoring toilet paper, paper towels, and antiseptic
wipes became the highlight of a shopping spree. Instead of random shopping trips,
folks found creative ways to avoid entering stores. Grocery pickup gained in
popularity. And a year ago could you in your wildest dreams think that you
would wear a mask in a store or to the bank?
If we have learned nothing else from this experience, I
hope that we have a new awareness that life-altering changes can happen in the
blink of an eye. The loss of a job, a health crisis, a mental health condition,
addiction, divorce, a death in the family, abuse, and an endless list of
setbacks can make or break a person’s spirit.
We each have our own war to fight. Jim and I survived
poverty and the gut-gnawing decision of what material things we could do
without so we had money to pay the bills and feed our family. We never once
took a handout from the government, family, or friends. Luckily, we were
satisfied with the simple things in life. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have
ambition and dreams, but life was to be enjoyed one day at a time. We traveled
on a shoestring and camped in the mountains, hiked some adventurous trails,
cooked delicious meals on a camp stove, and drove through the Rocky Mountain
National Park to watch animals. These are some of my most treasured memories.
We built our own home with sweat equity and buying a few
boards at a time. For several years, living was easier until it wasn’t.
Dementia sabotaged life as we once knew it, and would never know it again.
Words don’t exist to tell the complete story of how a degenerative brain
disease affects family dynamics.
Jim’s ten-year illness and death motivated me to move
outside my comfort zone into the world of volunteerism. Where I was inspired to
embrace the memories and share my experiences, I can completely understand
those who choose to move on and let their memories fade away.
Each individual has to deal with adversity in his or her
own way. They may or may not live life in a way that is palatable to others.
Unless another’s actions have a direct impact on me, I don’t waste my time
worrying about what someone else does, thinks, or says. My responsibility is to
travel my own journey and exit this world with as few regrets as possible.
Copyright
© May 2020 by L.S. Fisher
#ENDALZ
