Mother’s Day under pandemic

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To mothers on Mother’s Day:

• Ode to Moms 
• The pandemic offers mothers something they’ll neve have again 

News blues…

Last thing last night, I checked Johns Hopkins site for latest numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Sobering.
I expected by morning a number on or under 4 million. It’s worse: 4,025,175 - 32.5 percent of which are in the US.
Testing is the US’s latest political hot potato with Trump’s press spokesperson saying, “It’s ‘Nonsensical’ to Think Everyone Should Get a Coronavirus Test”.
Members of the Trump administration, meanwhile, are regularly tested. Two members have been confirmed with the infection and three are quarantined.
Numbers of confirmed cases in South Africa are rising too: 9,420 today, an increase of 525 overnight.

***

Former president Barack Obama, on a phone call with the Obama Alumni Association said:

“This election … coming … is so important because what we’re …battling is not just a particular individual or a political party… we’re fighting … long term trends … being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life… we’re seeing that internationally as well.”
“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ - is operationalized in our government.”
Mr. Obama has adopted a public posture of muted disapproval of his successor during his post-presidency, although he has spoken out at moments calculated to have high impact. In the weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Obama decried “crazy stuff” happening at the Justice Department under Mr. Trump and warned that “our democracy is at stake.”
He has told friends he is deeply concerned that Mr. Trump, despite his recent stumbles, will be able to successfully leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency….

On a lighter note, enjoy photo essays:

• California surf shimmers with bioluminescence
• 'Sitting at home seems wrong': NHS coronavirus volunteers – a photo essay
• Animals during the pandemic

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

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After weeding the garden yesterday afternoon, I sat on the grass and relaxed in the warm autumn sun.
Scruffy – the half blind, fully deaf, pee-on-furniture-prone dog – sat with me.
Embraced by grass, trees, water, insects, birds, it is possible (though not easy) to clear one’s mind of worries, to enjoy being alive, despite lockdown to feel intimately part of the world.
Awareness heightens clarity, too.
In my world, acting fruitfully on decisions means getting things done, moving forward, making progress.
In my mother’s world these days, decisions are talking points, not plans of action. Fruitless planning, not implementation, is her end point. To date, every agreed upon plan to ensure her health and safety, and that of this household, has been jettisoned.
Do I have the required fortitude?

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I’ll take this dragonfly as a good omen.
My camera was inside the house when it settled on a twig. Expecting it gone when I rushed for the camera, there it was, still posing.

Thank you, dragonfly.





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