For us this month has pretty much been the same.  The only change was that our weekly trips to the market for fresh fruit and veg were completely cut out.  Today we ventured out and picked up apples and a huge flat of strawberries. It was so wonderful to have those things back in the house. We're set up for a few more weeks but I can tell you that we solid ran out of just about everything before heading out to the stores. I was amazed at the number of people not distancing themselves from each other. Not a lot of folks wearing masks either. We scurried in and out taking out produce and heading back home.

Last week I took a week off from work to get some things done around the house.  We managed to get several above ground beds in and planted lots of veg. We did some trimming on some of the trees around the house and got the yard ready for spring. 

Eli is still perfecting our zero waste.  He came up with a great recipe for crackers made from the oat milk he makes each day. They turned out amazing!

Last week my aunt Sandra passed away.  She was the aunt that every one always told me I was just like. She was pretty amazing.  Over the last 5 years, we had a bit of a falling out. In the end we made a mends for that but when we came back from New Mexico, she didn't want us to come over or help at all with her.  She was someone I always looked up to when I was a child. As an adult, I learned that a lot of times when you put people up so high, it is a really big fall.  She was diagnosed with cancer about a year before we left and was in Chemo until the end. One of my sisters was with her when she died. I hate that she had to suffer but they did tell me that she was on morphine at the end so there's that. 

This is an older picture of us.  The first is of me in El Cajon some 17 years ago. Just amazing.  The second photo is her around the same time frame.

I'm not as sad as I thought I might be, when I thought about her dying in the past. I would have thought that I would be bawling my eyes out. But, that just isn't what is happening now.  I'm actually glad.  I'm happy she's not hurting any more. Death isn't the end of life.  Today she is here in the same way she was two weeks ago.  A flower is a flower, but it is also the sun and the rain.  It is the soil around it.  The flower is the sum of all the parts around it and we cannot remove one of the parts.  Without the sun we could not have the flower. It is this inter-being I think that makes me feel that we need to stop concentrating on the suffering and instead, be here.  Be right here, right now in the present moment to fully learn that we have everything we need to be happy. 

Everything.

So I sit here today.  With my strawberries and my rainbow.  I sit here with my dogs.  I sit here with my husband and I am present. I am in this moment right now.  I breathe in - Calm    I breathe out - Ease.  Maybe that's the magic.  Finding our place, where we can just be.

I'm doing a bit of self examination lately. Our world is not the same place it was 3 months ago. My biggest concern then was related to our house and when to schedule my next vacation. I was focused on getting myself ready for a possible move to a new location and opening up new opportunities for our future.

Buddha statue with incense bowl on a glass disk next to an acorn and a thimble Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson

Today we're actually talking about rationing items and not going out in public due to this virus.  The interesting thing is that I actually more worried about how other people are going to respond to this new stress more so than the actual virus itself.  I'm not saying or down playing the virus by any means. This is a very serious situation. I still see people on social media yelling that its a hoax or trying to turn it into a political issue. We need to really focus on what this is doing to our humanity.

Simple things such as supply chains seem to be totally foreign to the general public. If everyone went out at any time (virus or no) and purchased all of a specific product, that product would be scarce. Then it becomes a cycle. Because no one can get it, the next that comes in flies off the shelves and then it just repeats itself.  Panic buying leads to scarcity, which leads to more panic. Hoarding is something we as a society look at as being a negative, yet when billionaires hoard the nations wealth we call them successful.

Eastern Redbud Blossoms Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson

As the blossoms on the trees begin to open up and the bees are flying about, take a moment to think about what you want to bring into this world today. What do you want to put out there.  I'm leaning towards sharing some happiness and positive energy.  I want those without to have what they need. I want those with to share what they can. I want those who need it, to realize happiness in there within them. Together we can move forward and make this world a better place. We have all that we need within us. We just need to open up and see it.

Wishing you a fruitful spring.