Writing Through COVID-19

Tired. Regular tired? I don't know. I do work. I'm not quarantined.  Except on the weekends, life goes on pretty much the same as always: 5:00, alarm goes off, I stagger to the bathroom and pee; 5:05, I go out to the living room, sit in my recliner, get on Facebook for a few minutes, and then I write; 6:00, I let the dog out and then shower; by 7:00 I've said goodbye to Marci and am out the door. The drive is long and calming in the grainy, gray dawn.  Yesterday it was snowing and the roads were slushy.  I say my morning prayer with my eyes wide-open each day as I head down a wide, empty Main Street.  A county sheriff truck is usually out, one or two other cars also.  Prayer over, I turn on NPR before heading under the freeway.  The two gas stations on the other side are lit up, the outline of Cedar Mountain behind them becoming more distinct. To the east, the sky lightens quickly behind the mountains.  The details of this wide desert valley ga...

Our chicken coupe: the source for breakfast and stimulus to get me outside Heading out to water the chickens and gather eggs yesterday, I was struck by light silhouetting elms and glazing spring grasses as moist clouds moved along the horizon.  That is no surprise.  Spring at Dry Creek always awakens me to outside. Looking west from the driveway What is more surprising is my attention to detail inside.  A couple of Sundays ago, just as COVID-19 began to really impact Utah society, I was doing dishes and noticed light coming in the window and playing the edges of glass objects sitting along the sill. That in itself is not so abnormal.  Light always moves me.  That's why the glass is there in the first place.  No, what had changed was my need to capture the moment.  Methodically doing chores, almost ritualistically, became important.  I wanted to slow down and really live the day fully.  Perhaps it was just a way of focusing a ...

I had not planned to use this blog for this.  I had no plans for this blog at all, other than as a place to record my thoughts as I venture through this extraordinary time in history.  It's something I recommend everyone do.  Keeping a journal stills the mind as it frees fears locked tightly in the castle of the ego, that great fortress that doesn't allow us to be flawed, humble, human or mortal. However, I know this would not be an honest account if I did not express my extreme gratitude for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  To express that gratitude publicly, outside of church, is hard for me.  It's not that I'm afraid of rejection, although I know that might happen.  I'm not that social of a person anyway, and I've always had a few really good friends who I know will stick by me no matter what.  My social world is simply not going to crumble if I have the courage to state what I believe.  And even if it did, ...

I think I will work on my book today, The Great Texas Road Trip Thank-You Tour , a book about my life in Texas revisited through a road trip Marci and I took in September of 2018.  That seems so long ago now, in a world so different.  Of course, it really wasn't that different.  The world was in chaos then too.  Skies were smokey out west.  Fires were raging.  I remember as we made that trip how glad I was to see the landscape appear more normal as we moved east.  But that too was an illusion, a beautiful, verdant illusion, but an illusion just the same, for the plains had received far too much rain.  A week after we got back, my brother went to Dallas for his art show at Valley House Gallery and lost his car in a flood that swept through overnight and flooded gallery owners' home and property.  Luckily, the gallery sits on higher ground.  Later that fall, Paradise, California would go up in flames like no other place had burned before....

Let's be honest, right now COVID-19 is not the elephant in the room, it is the room.  I think I'm pretty calm, perhaps even happy, and for brief moments, at peace.  Yet, last Saturday, March 14, was the day everything changed, not just for me, but for everyone around me. Each region of the nation has a slightly different date.  Perhaps for you, that date hasn't come yet.  But it will.  And when it does, there will be no elephant in the room.  The elephant will be the room. This blog is not a precautionary tale.  This blog is not a source for inspiration.  It is certainly not a go-to place for facts and medical advice.  I'm not even sure it will be read.  To be honest, there's a part of me that wonders if it will even exist a month from now.  I think I'm an optimist.  I know I believe in God.  I'm certain there's life after death.  Yet, it is very conceivable to me right now that the world we know could come cras...