cocoon

*I have always wanted to spell cocoon the same as raccoon but it doesn’t.

So I think I am in current events overload. 2020 seemed to start out pretty well. Not much different from most new years until this virus. Which I learned we are now affectionately calling “the ‘Rona”. I doubt anybody who has had a close encounter with it feels too fond of it, or anything having to do with it.

fritillary caterpillar cocoon

My son and his girlfriend left for Germany on a Wednesday afternoon. That evening flights were cancelled from Asia. Friday they were cancelled from Europe. Saturday he was scrambling to find a flight from anywhere in Europe back to the states. They did make it back.

Then schools closed, till further notice. Playgrounds, parks, restaurants, libraries, government and municipal offices, the IRS, people worked from home. Or they were furloughed.

angel trumpet flower seed pod

Basically life stopped.

Hostility in the federal government escalated. A person of color died under uncertain circumstances in law enforcement custody and riots started. Not just there. Everywhere. Last I heard Seattle is still under siege.

We made it somehow through spring, no church, no graduations. Then summer. Some parts of the country the virus stabilized. Corporations began relocating elsewhere from the west and pacific northwest. Students continued their online classrooms.

fritillary (red) caterpillar with monarch caterpillar

Fall came. Louisiana got hit by more hurricanes. Busiest season on record. Some cities and states had opened. The virus spiked here and there, not in other places. Then other states crawled to phase 3, still not much service in restaurants but some store hours expanded though most places still require people to wear a mask. It became evident that this virus can be managed and survived but panic is still being encouraged in some quarters, I have no idea why.

passionflower (maypop) fruit

And now election. I’m capped off at this point. Early voting started last Thursday where I live. I stood in line two hours to vote. Most people were civil, congenial even. We did not care who was what or who was voting for whom. We voted, we went away.

maypop flowers

So I have done my civic duty. In the past at various elections I have been a precinct judge, a poll watcher. I have volunteered with phone banks. Not this year. Even though some states are claiming they need to extend the ballot counts beyond election day because, well, covid. I say baloney.

goldenrod flower spike and small bumble bee sleeping

So I will self-isolate, call a lid, whatever, intentionally, even though now with my state still in phase three I don’t have to. I have seen highly contentious politics before but none with so much proof and evidence of unethical and illegal activities that are blatantly denied. I’ve not lost faith because my faith is in God, not men. But I am looking forward to a day when all of us are honest again, when we care about others and work for what is good for all people. And I am going to firmly believe this day will come in my lifetime.