On Compassion - COVID-19 Watch from Pioneer, CA

I’m lots of Irish and much American and so I get fired up and don’t like to follow rules. (Some of you will remember the great gas-pump debacle of my 15th year). I spend too much money and want to go to the Dollar Store for cheap art supplies, but have to keep reminding myself that I have everything I need. ​I am the last person who should give advice.
 
Alas, I do try to reflect every now and then, and seek the advice of people who know better. (How I wish my grandmother was here! Can I call yours?) I try to learn from my mistakes. If I look back at the bigger mistakes of my lifetime (you know, beyond the dumb stuff I did like trying to float the North Fork of the American in an inner tube), they stem from a lack of compassion and an abundance of selfishness. 
 
Maybe I’m a socialist, but probably a Buddhist, or most likely I’m a kid (haha) who just wants the people I love and the people you love to be happy and healthy. I think that means I’m human. 
 
Why do people still think the novel coronavirus is a hoax? (Even Trump has admitted that it’s here, even if he can’t get the name right). 
 
Disbelievers are scared. They are in denial. They don’t want it to be true because it’s too frightening to believe that people we know and love will die due to COVID-19. 
 
We don’t need nuclear attacks to destroy us – our own ignorance will do that – but that’s ok – I can relate to being scared, and so I'll try on compassion and understanding for size (I’m not a saint – if a family member of mine can’t get a ventilator, I'm going to be pretty angry that some people just couldn't stay home). 
 
We are all in different stages of grief over this upheaval in our lives. We will volley back and forth on the Kubler-Ross scale for the next weeks, months and years, and life will be forever changed for our generation and that of our children. What do I want my children to remember from all of this? That I stayed calm, that I forgave (I’ll do my best), that I tried to protect our health, that I cared for my parents and my community, and most of all that I looked forward to a year from now when we start rebuilding and I kept compassion and understanding in my heart. We will need to come back together and heal and the beginning will be compassion. 
 
For those of us who still don’t know what that word means – its big in concept and length – just try to see it from someone else’s shoes, or whatever the phrases is. 
 
Today I’ll try to understand why my 5 year old is experimenting with throwing stuff on top of the fireplace (more on this later), why the little one is pulling his big brother’s hair, and why my husband wants to go outside first thing in the morning. (I’m a late morning person, myself.) 
 
I’ll start at home and work my compassion ring out from there and I’ll check out the Kubler-Ross scale of grief and think about how this will all look a year from now. 
 
Stay home, save a life. 
 
All the Best,
Kelly