I’m sitting in one of my favorite local coffee shops today: relaxing in the cool air-conditioned and mellow space, listening to soft conversations around me (all tables six feet apart), sipping a cup of good tea (and enjoying a scone), and writing this blog and editing Midnight Bites. I can’t remember the last time I could do this. Loving it!
Pre-COVID, I visited coffee shops two or three times a week to write; not to include meeting specific writing groups and/or restaurants. The CDC announced it was okay for the vaccinated to move about without masks, yet I haven’t done more than a couple of dinners out with the hubby and a trip to visit mom. Yesterday, I asked myself why. The reason smacked me in the face:
Habit.
It sounds crazy too simple, but think about it. For over a year we’ve been told not to go out in public, stay home, stay safe, keep your neighbors safe. Many of the business (like our coffee shops) had to close their doors – to reopen a drive-thru and pickup only. It’s now a habit to stay home.
If I’m being honest, I must admit that I am also a little afraid. No, not afraid of being around people; afraid of what things will be like. Truth is: there no such thing as “getting back to normal.” Let the politicians and marketing folks talk about “getting back to normal.” I accept the fact that COVID changed EVERYTHING.
Today, I embark on creating new “normal.” With each sip of tea, I strive to embrace what is new without fear or prejudice of what is or what might be.
What are you doing to embrace, or maybe form, a new normal?
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Here in central Florida where I live, people have been going out for quite some time – restaurants, bars, coffee shops, shopping malls – almost everywhere. More so here than in other parts of the US. Whether that is good, or bad I can’t say. The political climate, like our summer climate, is a bit different down here. But that’s about as far into the politics of it as I care to wade in. My wife just made her first trip on an airplane yesterday (we have not traveled since Feb. 2020), so that’s a step in the right direction. And we booked a trip to Las Vegas next month. So that’s what I’m doing. But all that said, I think the real ‘back to normal’ is quite some time away.
We’re all taking it one step at a time. 🙂
I’m looking forward for the day when going back to the coffee shop is the norm. We still have 5,000+ cases per day here in Malaysia, and I truly miss writing outdoors.
Yes. I am ready too. I have not done writing in coffee shops yet, but some reading and people watching. The statistics on those of us with vaccinations are looking very good.