Why does “post COVID” return to normal not seem normal at all? It is the same clubs getting busy again, and the same rituals of meals, and meetings, activities, people, trips, and on and on, and yet, many times I just stop and think, “how did I get all of this done just three years ago?”.
I have heard that you never forget how to ride a bicycle. It may have been years since you rode one, and you might be wobbly at first, and then it all comes back to you. Personally, I’ve never successfully ridden a bicycle more than a few feet, so I must presume that what I have heard is correct. People have told me that when they visited family in another country the language they spoke as a child, or that their parents spoke at home, came back to them and they were able to have decent conversations. So why doesn’t the new normal feel normal?
Did that long year plus allow our brains and bodies to begin to like just not doing much of anything to the point where doing anything seems as though it is a big deal? Folding underwear and bath towels and putting them away now seems a significant accomplishment and the reason to then sit and watch a movie, instead of the ten-minute task it was in the past.
I’m tired. I take my vitamins, add in some D, and C, iron here and there, and a few other specialties. I drink plenty of water and get a fairly decent night’s sleep (new mattress, extra firm – UGH). I accomplish things – wake up, get out of bed, eventually take a shower and get dressed – even though some days that takes more thought and effort. A side thought runs through my brain. What if I needed to be in assisted living where the late breakfast was 8:30? I would need to be up, dressed nicely, hair and makeup done, and in the dining room by 8:30. That would feel like a job! Find me an assisted living place where breakfast begins at 9:30, if you are interested, and it is OK to arrive in robe and slippers with no makeup and ugly hair. Sunglasses optional. Sorry, back to topic.
Events come up and I make a reservation to go because I know that if I don’t make the reservation I won’t get out of the house. Although I’ve enjoyed most of these events, it takes resolve to push past the “I don’t really want to go” that I experience every time even when it is a concert with a favorite artist, or a play I’ve been looking forward to seeing, or many other things that seemed so natural in the past.
Admittedly, the malaise comes in waves where I am more energetic and feel better and sleep better for a while, and then the nights of needing 10 hours of sleep returns and that alternates with a tossing and turning. Someone suggested to me that “as we get older” our sleep cycles change as does our energy. I’m not ready for that, not yet. I just want things to be better, to be as they were three years ago. Or, maybe they are as they were three years ago and my memory doesn’t remember.
Am I the only one?
How are you holding up?
Every Day Is A Good Day – I just wish I felt it.
VJ
everydaywithvj 