Not long ago, I was blogging about a Kindness Project. I left off at Week 7 and 8. The next post was a bit of middle of the night COVID anxiety but I think it’s well time I started focusing on kindness again. I’ve been going over our weeks since then and reflecting on Jamie Thurston’s book, Kindness the Little Thing that Matters Most, and how it has lessons to teach us, especially in times like these. From where I left off, until today, our world has been changed.
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Week 9
February 23 – 29
“Pay for Someone’s Journey”
By the end of February, COVID19 had exited Asia, travelled within Europe and had now landed in North America. At this point, all cases in Canada related to travel outside of the country. It became a certainty that I wouldn’t be paying for any journeys outside of Canada, for a while.
My son and his family had a Disneyland trip booked for the end of May. If they lose anything in having to cancel the trip…I guess I’ll help them out a bit with that journey when they can finally take it. “Pay for Someone’s Cancelled Journey” is still kindness.
Week 10
March 1 – 7
“Remember Where You Came From (and where you are going)”
This theme stresses empathy for the different places people might be in their lives. The young families, like we once were, the seniors in long term care as we will someday be. The same day the first case was announced in Alberta, the first community transmission in Canada recorded, my niece had her first baby. I reached out to her and tried to support her from a distance as neither of us were comfortable with visitors to wee Parker. We still haven’t cuddled my great-nephew. We knew my brother, who passed away in 2004, would miss the opportunity for that cuddle. We didn’t think we would.
The age demographic of COVID’s victims across the world was heavily into the senior years. My husband turned 65 last year; I’m approaching 60. Although not the highest risk, our daughter, as a nurse, was starting to think about the possibilities of poor outcomes due to age and the “co-morbidities” of heart disease and asthma.
We thought about the lost wisdom as so many seniors fell to the disease around the world.
Week 11
March 8 – 14
“Be A Seat Vigilante”
This section resonated in an entirely different way than it would have before March 2020. The book talks about giving up your seat to someone who might need it more than you. At this point, Alberta’s cases were returning travellers, but our observations of other countries made us wary. My ED nurse daughter had now asked us to stay home. She was actively planning for the virus to arrive and knew enough about it that she didn’t want us out and about. Universities in Alberta began to cancel their lectures due to class sizes.
“Giving up your seat to someone who needs it more than you”…started to become “giving up your activities to save someone more vulnerable than you.”
Week 12
March 15 to 21
“Apologize”
I had my final outing on March 16. My brother was having a procedure done at a hospital in Calgary, and as his guardian, I was there to support him and sign his documentation. My daughter works at this hospital, and she popped up to hug her uncle. I asked for a hug too because we just didn’t know when the next hug would be.
Alberta got our first case of “community transmission” this week, bringing anxiety levels a little higher.
On my way home, I picked up prescriptions to limit excursions, and the Costco was insanely busy. We were hearing about “social distancing,” and running the gauntlet to the pharmacy in that crowd had me thinking it was time to change pharmacies. I apologized as I asked people to move aside to let me through, and as I spoke with the pharmacist, I had a feeling that a lot of people would be subjecting her to some behaviour that should get her an apology. The stress was evident. I wished her well, apologizing in my head on behalf of any who would not show her patience over the next while.
People would begin working from home this week and attempt to homeschool their kids as classrooms shuttered their doors. Recreation facilities would close, gatherings above 50 people were not recommended, and a state of health emergency was declared. Our first COVID19 death was recorded this week.
There was not going to be much room for patience.
Week 13
March 22 to 28
“Be Nice to Parking Attendants”
The message here was, “When we judge people by their profession, we cease to see them as individuals.”
By March 27, we had started to see closures of non-essential services. Who was staying open? Grocery Stores. Trucking Companies. Food Delivery, the people getting us fed and making sure we got our essentials. Suddenly, jobs with little social standing were “essential,” grocery clerks, truckers and delivery drivers were lauded as heroes as they placed themselves “out there” while we stayed safely home.
Be kind if you are in the grocery store even as you feel the stress brought by waiting in line, one way aisles and picked over shelves.
Buy a trucker a cup of coffee and a meal at a drive through. Give them the fist pump for an airhorn blast. (My husband was a trucker for a while. Trust me he LOVED when the kids did that!)
Yell, “Thank you!!” to the delivery driver (from a distance) when he drops your online order at the door.
We are all in a better place than we would be if not for our new heroes. Be kind.
Week 14
March 29 – April 4
“Speak Up”
Be strong for those who can’t be, and a voice for those who need it.
This week there were 20 patients hospitalized in Alberta, 8 in ICU and another death. It was time to “speak up,” and what we began saying was, “stay home if you can, wash your hands frequently, practice social distancing.” We were speaking up for our elders, for our immunocompromised, for those with pre-existing conditions…protecting them by staying home.
Week 15
April 5 – 10
“Share Good News”
We needed this more than ever, as day after day, we have been subjected to constant coverage of skyrocketing death tolls in Europe, New York City and a creeping of death tolls in Canada. What’s the GOOD news?
I guess the good news is the concerts put out on Twitter by celebrities and choirs, the puppy videos, the hilarious isolation challenges.
For some reason, more than one family member sent me the video of a couple of seniors trying to catch snow in their mouths as their garage door opened…thinking it might be an activity we could do. Lord knows we can’t sing.
The good news is people seeing truckers and cashiers recognized as essential, health care workers receiving ovations and lights and sirens drive-bys as they change shifts.
The good news is the creativity coming out of people stranded at home.
The good news is the discovery that the human touch is a superpower. We didn’t know it was a superpower. Now we do, and boy will that superpower be launched in full force when the time comes.
The good news is my son’s test for COVID 19 has come back negative. His wife and I have never been so happy to see a man-cold.
The good news is…this will end, and many of us will be changed for the better.
Path to Pasture 