As I look around my town feels a bit like a time machine bringing me back to the eighties: little traffic, folks walking, cyclists whiz by, children playing at home. Barbecue waffling in the air.
As I sit in my comfy house safe as a bug in a rug, I my thoughts wander off with the reality of just what has happened to our everyday lives due to COVID-19. If you put on the news or even take the pulse of our local communities it’s hard to imagine a “silver lining.”
I am going to do just that.
From the beginning of the New York State pause, I consider it really is fear of the unknown that paralyzed the masses. When you have no idea what the future holds, it’s a real concern.
Did anyone imagine good could come from this pandemic? It has.
I start with the empty nesters who are retired and had the pleasure of there college age adults return home. The biggest gift of time realized.
The grandparents once again finds a voice and the experience of wisdom they can pass down is again appreciated.
During this time renewing relationships and catching up on family and even going so far as to share our stories of days gone by.
Sharing what we did before internet, cell phones, technology. Share a special recipe ,a story of our days gone by, drive-in movies, home cooked meals - ahhh - time a real tangible thing revealed.
You can hardly let a day go by after just one week, the robins egg blue sky begs to be seen.
I had to bring it up to many to see if they even noticed, many have. The New York City skyline is visible for seventy miles away. It has not been in decades.The air is cleaner and oddly the price of gas today was something I haven’t seen since the eighties. A blast from past again. Twenty dollars filled my gas tank?
Water has found a way in many streams and lakes to heal itself magically.
I guess humans never realize our footprint is deep. Environmentally it’s been a blessing. Animals come out from there hiding places and venture out in the day. I spoke to a local licensed rehabber for animals.Linda Hickey. I asked her this time of year do you see any changes?
Yes, she explained, people are out so she has gotten calls on wildlife no one even noticed displaced from a parent.
Yet auto involved injuries have decreased. I also stopped at our Warwick Animal Shelter interviewed Kelly. I asked: "Do you see any silver linings?" She perked up and said yes, adoptions up 50 percent. Cats are also being adopted; the shelter at times had more than 100. Not so many new cases. They are complying to all social distancing rules and masks.
The one big change is call for private appointments one at a time.
On the home front non-essentials at home more their own pets have no idea what is this magic my human is home, more?
In closing, I guess you can look around and see only the devastation many have suffered it is a fact. However, when the times become difficult, it might help to take a hard look and have faith and hope in silver linings.
Sharon Scheer
Monroe