My Wants Are Not Worth Someone's Life

My heart is heavy as I write this post. As I read about the executive order mandating that the meat-processing facilities keep operating despite the danger, I am grieved. (If the order gave permission for plants to operate if they could do so safely, I would be behind that 100%. I'd also support formal rationing or stores limiting how much we can purchase in a day.)

This isn't a faceless crowd that prepares our meat. This impacts people we know personally. For 4 years, my husband and I lived within 15 minutes of a beef-packing plant in the Texan panhandle. So when I hear about how the plants are required to keep working, despite the rising number of cases at their facilities, I see the faces of the people who work there. They are students I taught. They are friends I made.

The order references our national need for protein as a driving force behind it. But meat is a small selection of all the protein sources available. In fact, here is a chart with many vegan protein sources.

We want meat. We don't need it.

Rather than rationing like we did during the World Wars, we are ordering people to work in dangerous environments for a luxury item.

Rather than encouraging plants to operate at 1/4 or 1/2 capacity, we don't want the ground beef to run out.

The contempt we are showing for human life by requiring workers to keep supplying us with meat devastates me.

But what can one person do in the face of this? Can one family make a difference?

Absolutely.

We can stop buying meat for a season.
We can avoid contributing to the demand of something that will require more people to keep working in virus hotspots.
We can cook with quinoa, couscous, rice, beans, barley, oatmeal, millet, tofu, and lentils.
We can find ways to stretch out the meats we have in our freezer to last longer.
We can have Meatless Mondays, Tofu Tuesdays, Walnut Wednesdays, Tempeh Thursdays, Friendship Bread Fridays, Sesame Seed Saturdays, and Sweet Potato Sundays.
We can realize that eating meat every day is a luxury that many in the world don't enjoy.

And if you join, we can give the meat industry the breathing room they need to get back on their feet safely.

Because my desire for bacon is not worth someone's life.

The Old Normal May Not Come Back

I've been pondering variations of the phrase "things will get back to normal soon".

But I can't help but wonder, what if they don't go back to normal?

Do I think we can find a new normal in the midst of a pandemic? Absolutely!

Do I believe we will one day reach a new normal once more when the lockdowns end? Of course!

Will things go back exactly as they were before the virus brought our lives to screeching halts? My dear friends, this is not likely.

When a wedding happens, life doesn't go back to normal afterwards. Things change drastically for the couple. Two lives are blended into one. Two people learn to live in one household together. A new normal is formed.

When someone we love dies, we wonder how our lives can go on with a hole in our hearts. We notice the empty space they should have been. Life never goes back to the way it was before they died, but we learn to live in a world without them.

When a tragedy like a world war or 9/11 happened, big changes followed. Clean up and recovery didn't happen overnight. Lasting changes became new normals as the way we interacted with our world changed.

When we graduated from high school or college, things never went back to the way they were before. We now were required to navigate the world of "adulting". There was no way to retreat back into the carefree (or highly stressful) days of school.

There are moments in our lives when change occurs, where things will no longer be as they once were.

These make a lasting impact on us. They define us going forward. They leave an irrevocable mark on our characters and souls.

This pandemic is one such defining event.

When it ends (and yes, it will end), we will come out of our social distancing and lockdowns, changed, but still here. Grieving those we have lost, even as we rejoice at the simple joy of choosing to go to the grocery store as a family. Things will become a new sort of normal as we pick up the pieces of our lives again. Some pieces will be fit back together, bearing the marks of this trial. Other pieces will be discarded, no longer applicable in our lives tomorrow. And one day, after a new post-pandemic normal has been reached, we will look around and marvel that this new life has become our normal.

Utilizing A Schedule While Staying At Home

When staying at home for an extended number of days, it's easy for the days to start to blend together and for gloom to set in. One way to combat this is to utilize a schedule to add structure to the day.

Since I work from home, my schedule wasn't as drastically upset as other's schedules have been, but nonetheless, I have switched over to a stay-at-home schedule to keep me productive and enjoying life. So here are some tips and tricks of scheduling, even for those of you who are free spirits and resist schedules normally.

Tips and Tricks of Scheduling
1. Plan an overarching schedule. For example, I have a set time that I teach online every day. It's something consistent.
2. Plan something fun. For example, I typically love my afternoon because I work on my hobbies. They are scheduled events so my "achiever" side is happy, but they are fun activities so I can de-stress. I am even learning a new skill (playing the violin). I really look forward to my time to practice everyday.
3. Plan something unique for each day. I listen to a sermon on Sundays. I have an online Bible study on Tuesdays. I have e-games with various family members on Wednesdays and Fridays. These events are unique events each week and help me keep track of what day it is.
4. Plan margin time. When scheduling events, I plan at least 15 minutes between the different events. This allows for hiccups in the day.
5. Plan exceptions to your schedule. Sometimes, when I'm busy or behind, I start to delete events that can wait until tomorrow. It's okay. It'll be there.
6. Plan a Sabbath day. My Sunday is my day of rest and my schedule reflects that. I can choose to do my hobbies or bake a treat or just rest.
7. Plan activities with people and apart from people. I am staying at home with my delightful husband, but I have friends staying at home as single individuals. In either case, we can do some activities by ourselves, but do other activities with others (either in person or via technology).
8. Plan to get notifications to remind you what's next. My phone gives me all the reminders I need. 30 minutes before my next activity it sends me a notification so I can plan to wind down my current activity and start my next task.
9. Plan time for chores and other routine tasks. Budgeting and laundry will still need done, so set time aside to handle these necessary chores. Find ways to make cleaning fun. Speed cleaning? Cleaning Dance Party? How can you make it enjoyable?
10. Plan self-care. Take care of yourself. Pamper yourself. Eat a treat, but also go on a (properly socially distanced) walk. Open the curtains, even though they'll need closed at the end of the day.