Pandemic-Part 3. Look for the gift

After about 2 weeks of being holed up at home, a lot of folks began to wonder if they were alone, really alone. I thought about George Stewart’s classic Sci-Fi Apocalypse tale, Earth Abides, written in 1961. The hero is a biologist doing research in the High Sierra Nevada (Ironically near my home). He gets a case of the “flu,” and thinks he’s going to die. Somehow he survives, and decides that he should get back to civilization. But as he comes down the mountain, he begins to sense that there is no civilization! No one is anywhere.

At the end of those first COVID weeks, I started to wonder if we were immersed in a similar scenario. I started thinking about all of the families with kids that were feeling disconnected. No school, no library story times, no playdates. The one thing I could do was to give the gift of storytelling…REMOTELY? So, I put on my Story Lady Super Powers Cape, and jumped off the cliff. Hopefully I’d be able to fly!

No prior experience with Zoom. No comfort with video-recordings. And then I discovered Facebook Live, and I made the leap! With help from the Mother Lode Storytelling Guild, I started weekly Story Time programs for different ages: Toddlers & Preschoolers; School-Age Kids, and Teens & Adults. We put out the word, and during that first week of Story Times, we saw an audience of nearly 200.

Shortly after a friend sent me a link to a grant from Cal-Humanities. They were requesting proposals from people whose work was impacted by the COVID-19 closures. Well, I had all my live programs had been cancelled, so I took a stab at writing the grant. And Voilà! I got one! I went to work with diligence. Soon attendance numbers grew as people shared the programs on their own Facebook pages. By two weeks out we had reached over 1500 households. I was humbled.

Telling stories and doing finger plays for toddlers & preschoolers

By the end of Summer 2020, the Mother Lode Storytelling Guild had produced 77 Shelter-In Story Times. Pretty good for a bunch of almost-Luddites! And of course, I am so grateful to Cal-Humanities for helping to keep me afloat during this time.

I hope that you can still catch them on Facebook at BZ Smith with the Buzz on Storytelling & the Arts.

But now what? COVID-19 has not “magically disappeared” with a “POOF!” as some predicted. Like my hero from Earth Abides, we’re building a new way of living and doing. My mom taught me to always look for the gift in times of adversity. At times in my life her words have been a mantra. I hear her voice each day. Hopefully we’ll get this virus, and the next one, and the one after that under control. Along the way, we are meeting ourselves in the mirror, and discovering so much about who we are….I know that I am making those discoveries.

Like Mom said, “Look for the gift.’ Read a book. Try a new recipe. Call an old friend. Tell your family why you love them. AND learn something new in the world of technology. How weird that our computers and Smart Phones may become the glue that binds us together for a while longer.

pandemic-part 2. this is the real deal?

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Pretty soon the masks started arriving in the mail.

This one startled me!

By mid-March we were on a roll: Start seedlings for the garden. Get shopping lists ready. Go to the grocery store only every ten days. Mask? Gloves? Handwipes? Be careful wherever you go! Wash all the food that comes in the house. Then strip down and get in the shower! BTW, we were all really glad when we learned that we did not have to wash everything, right?

Nobody knows how this thing is spreading. In those early days we were all terrified because of the uncertainty. I heard a lot of this, “Whatever you do, do not visit or go to anyone’s house for any reason! AND do not invite anyone over here!” Even the cleaning lady?!?!?!? Hell’s Bells!

But right at that moment I had a friend who was just getting out of the hospital. Someone had to help him get home and get settled. I knew that it should be ME! Then schools closed, and a whole slew of storytelling gigs dried up rather quickly, even in the midst of the rainy season. And then there were our own grandies. What do you mean we can’t have our youngest grandchild here anymore? This kid has practically lived with us for eight years! Now they can’t even come in the door? That sucks big time!

At least we have had Sage (another one of the grandies) and Glenn (his sweetie-pie) sheltering in with us. They keep us laughing, help around the house, and sharing lots of 3-Way hugs with me!

Grandie Sage and sweetie pie Glenn

But what about our community? I wondered if COVID had just swallowed everyone up. How were folks adjusting? How were kids handling life at home 24/7?  I needed to reach out!

Pandemic-Part 1. pandemic? Huh? WTF? Us?

March 3rd, 2020: I was getting gussied up to go to an  Election VICTORY Party. But my husband says, “You can't go to a party! Don't you know that there is a Pandemic going on?” 

I knew there was a weird virus floating around, a new strain of Flu? But I wasn't thinking about it being in our community yet. I’ve always been quite involved in the life of our community…in the trenches for almost every cause, pledge, campaign, rally. “There’s BZ, front and center.” These are my people! I want them to know that I am there for them 100%. But now here was my favorite person telling me to stand down, to “Let someone else do it.” That night I stayed home, and I was pissed! 

Over the next two weeks, we hunkered down, listening, watching the news. Slowly I grew to understand that this really was a “Whole New World.” I started to grasp the truth of what it means to respect and love someone enough to do it their way. And I started feeling a new kind of calm that comes when you just STOP!

So, when our governor said, “Shelter In,” I was ready for this new thing. (My hub always stays home, unless he HAS to do an errand.) This would be easy-peasy for him. I decided to make it into a game. What could I get done? What had I been postponing at home? I sewed a quilt and masks. I sorted photos. I baked. I conjured “clean out the freezer” soups. I discovered new recipes. We planned our Virus Victory Garden. And I watched PBS News Hour every evening, and soon fell in love with Lisa DesJardins' cat. Yes, watching cats can make all the bad stuff go away!

But how long would this last? And what lay ahead?