For the first time since Covid-19 became a reality here in the U.S., I’m beginning to experience something that approximates normalcy or at least something that passes for normal.
The weekend before last, my friend of 40 years, Leighton, had his birthday. It would be impolite to say which birthday but, he’s had a lot of them. Renee, his wife, had planned a kayaking trip down the Trinity River and a box lunch picnic afterwards. Even though everyone attending had be vaccinated, it was still planned to be outdoors.
The weather on the 20th was cool and windy, not ideal for kayaking so we postponed that event, but she did still have a birthday celebration on the 21st with all of his friends and family who could make it.
As I mentioned, everyone in attendance had be vaccinated by this time so we decided that for this event it would be mask optional. I guess as some point, you just have to let go and step out the door of the airplane and trust your parachute, which we all did.
Many of these people were in the last group meeting that we had the first weekend of March in 2020, just before the stay-at-home order and all of the other joy of the past year.
What I missed most during this time was being close to my friends. Hugging, touching and being within close proximity to them. I’d lost the sense of community over the last 12 months. This lunch was a huge emotional release for me, them too, I think.
This past weekend, we finally took that kayak trip down the Trinity river. I told my friend Katja via a text that it was the most normal day I’d had in over a year. For a brief time, a group of friends who enjoy being outside, together, were able to do just that.
Kayaking by its nature is spatially distancing but, it didn’t feel contrived or forced. We wore our masks in the van to the put in but then, free at last! We laughed, enjoyed one another’s company and soaked in the glorious sunshine. For 2.5 hours, Covid-19 never entered my thoughts. This trip was an emotional and psychological cleansing. One that was long past due.
We finished up with burgers and beers at Twisted Root Burger and if anyone is counting, I had the Vegebond (that’s for MGS the vegetarian vagabond). More importantly, even though we wore masks inside, sitting there on the patio with my friends talking about anything and everything (except CV-19), we all agreed this felt as close to normal as it gets.
I hope I have many more days like this, so many that we’ll forget about the loneliness and isolation of the past year. I hope that my friends around the world will soon also enjoy days like this.
And, if I were a person who prayed, I would pray that this is not an illusion and that we never return to the sadness and despair of the past year. I’m not but hopefully my friends can pick me up here.