Happy Saturday, everyone!

Of course, if you're in an area with a lockdown of any type in place or
if you've lost your job, for the time being, the days sort of run
together. Welcome to my life - working from home for the past
almost-decade, I quite frequently express amazement - "Wait, it's
Wednesday?!?!"  The only thing that keeps me on track is garbage day,
and may garbage day be ongoing!  :)

Enough rambling though. I wanted to send you some thoughts regarding the
next few weeks.

First of all, if you were listening to a press conference last week in
which the President suggested that the shutdowns would be over on
Easter, I believe that is extremely unlikely. As much as we want to see
the economy back up and running, based on an analysis of what other
countries are facing, I think if anything, our lockdown will be even
more stringent by then.

Please don't make decisions based on this all being "back to normal" by
April 12th.

Secondly, understand this may go on for a lot longer than people
initially expected. Tomorrow I'm going to write up the patterns based on
what we're seeing in China and Italy. The information may not be what
you want to see but it's better to base your plan on reality than on
what we hope to see, right?

Finally, take this opportunity to work on those projects you've been
putting off. Putting up a fence, tightening your home security, building
a new cupboard for canned goods? All those things can happen now if
you're not currently working.

I know the uncertainty of our situation is truly difficult to deal with
- if we don't even know what's happening next week, how can we make
plans for the summer or the next school year or...or...or....? To me,
and perhaps also to you, the uncertainty is one of the most difficult
parts of all this.

I find that making a plan for each day and not going further than that
in my planning helps a lot. So today, I've done some research for an
upcoming article, and we're working on a fire pit for the backyard in
case some off-grid cooking is called for in the near future.

I believe that social distancing is the answer to slowing the spread of
this virus. I know we all had plans and other things we wanted to be
doing right now. This will all end at some point. We don't know when and
we shouldn't expect things to just "go back to normal."  That would be
an unwise mistake to make.

But maybe our new normal can be better. Maybe we can remember the
lessons we've learned during the days that the United States (or
wherever you are) has locked down. Maybe we can be more connected to the
people we love. Maybe we can cook from scratch and use our pantries and
become better prepared as a nation. Maybe we can become better neighbors
and embrace (from a safe social distance, haha) our communities.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing more information on my expectations for just
low long this whole thing will go on.

Today, please take the time to enjoy this current pace. Stop trying to
look so far ahead, and savor the moments that are happening now. Nobody
knows what the future will bring us, but today, let it bring us some
happiness about the simple joys in our lives, no matter how different
and no matter how small.

Love,
Daisy
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