I typically connect with clients and many friends by email, text, and phone. Some things haven’t changed with physical distancing. People are still looking for work, writing, and connecting. Some things have changed. I’m not writing in my writing group, seeing my grandkids, and meeting with friends in person. The funny thing is, when things slow down and I have time to write, my writing mind seems to slow down also.

This morning I got up at 5:00, not my usual hour, and decided to write. I found TheProse.com again. I hadn't looked at the site in months. I decided to write on the Prose Challenge: "You’re living on the street and you want it to end." On a cold dark morning alone in my office I came up quite a story. My Clean White Bones came to me as quite a surprise. I didn’t realize I could conjure up such despair. https://theprose.com/post/344323/my-clean-white-bones

I want to thank everyone at The Prose for inspiring me to imagine such a dire destiny. It is amazing what a writing community can inspire. Maintaining connections to writing communities, friends, and family has helped me stay socially connected while maintaining physical distancing.

Writing, walking, and reading alone then connecting using all the great tech available is keeping me social.

#notstressingout #physicaldistancing #socialconnecting

The father and his young son were walking along the road. At that moment a beggar appeared before them. The beggar was very poor and disabled.

"Father," said the boy, "do we have a lot of money?"

"Of course we have a million dollars! We have more shops, houses and cars! All of them will one day be yours," replied his father.

"Father, can we help this beggar a little?" asked the boy

"No! We did not make money easily! This is the law of capitalism! The more we give to this beggar, the less he will be, and he will become even poorer," replied his father.

"Why doesn't everyone in this world have a home? Why isn't everyone as rich as we are? Why are so many unlucky and unhappy people?" asked the boy nervously

"Whoever is strong in this life, that man will live, my son!" replied his father

"Father, I have calculated one thing! If all the rich people in the world donate only one percent of their surplus money to the poor, there will be no poor people left on earth!" said the boy happily

But his father did not answer. He called by telephone someone as if he hadn’t heard his son and started talking about starting some kind of business again. Then they continued on their way. The beggar, who was left behind, fainted because he could not find food ...

But there were still unanswered questions in the boy's heart. The boy thought a lot: "Why are human beings so greedy? Why don't they want to help people who are weaker than themselves?"

No matter how much the boy thought, he could not find an answer to this question ...

***

Oh people! Let’s be a little more kind and generous to those around us! After all, anyone could be in the place of that beggar ...

I hope I get it figured out

Whatever this shit’s all about

I hope I accomplish what I’m meant to do

Before my era on this flying rock is through

Cause I’ve just been listing

Drinking tea and kind of drifting

From one year to the next

To the next and the next

No purpose, more than halfway to fifty

Just waiting for something to hit me

‘Calm down, girl. It’s fine,’ they say

‘You’re young, you’ve got time, it’s okay.’

But it’s been twenty-six years of them screaming ‘talent and potential’

And still the only time I’m essential

Is while senselessly killing myself

To make them rich, no regard for my health

In my soul I know there must be more

Or what the hell has this all been for

But who on this Earth has the time

To find their purpose, while living on their own dime?

’Cause money makes the world go round

So we run our bodies into the ground

Put our dreams and passions on hold

Sure we’ll pick them up before we’re cold

Eventually they wither away

Crushed beneath responsibilities compounding by the passing day

Leaving nothing when we’re gone, but our name

And the thousands of ways we’re all exactly the same

There maybe an alternative though, you see

If I can find that which sets my spirit free

Maybe I can break the spell

Be more than just the same old story to tell

My mind is restless

My hands itch

My heart aches for a path

Wild, untested, and rich.

Will I leave their hearts better than I found them?

Will I do anything worth while?

Will they miss me when I’m gone?

Will they say that I ever made them smile?

I hope for cause

I hope for a way

To leave more of a dent in this world

Than just my grave

In times like these stress is a factor.

Life as we knew it has become a subtractor.

People are being used as sacrifices for money.

Everything we had built is gone, it's not funny.

"Make America Great Again", is what we are being told.

"Let Me Make A Mistake Again", is what should've been sold.

The world is suffering, and my mind is on speed dial.

The wrong that was done on this earth is being put on trial.

We hope for a slap on the wrist, and this all goes away.

Hoping the disaster for today, will not return another day.

Stress is a factor for our young and old.

Let's hope it recovers before the world turns cold.

I’m stressing out for the one's around me. That's what I’ve done my entire life, put the well-being of others ahead of my own. During this time of the coronavirus chaos, I’m in the process of obtaining my job benefits, I’m relatively healthy and I’m okay in that aspect.

The stress seeps into my consciousness when it comes to my elderly parents, who are more susceptible of contracting this invisible enemy. And if either one were infected, they'd likely contribute to the death poll that continues to rapidly increase here in Pennsylvania.

My son is out of school and participating via internet to complete his schoolwork. I’m far from being an educator, but his homework assigments in seventh doing are more advanced than what I wasdoing in high school. He suffers from ADD and the days become challenging for the both of us, but we survive. No one said parenting was an easy task to complete, but I'm driven to fulfill his needs and support his well-being all the way!

At the end of the day, my stress lies in these unknown timelines of quarantine and shutdowns. When will I be able to return to work? Will my son be going back to school to see his friends this year? How many more lives will be taken from this pandemic and when will it conclud? Better yet, when will our lives return to normal again? That's where my life lies in the midst of this worldwide interruption, just living and surviving in the unknown.

Pretty much a lot of stuff is happening

Haven't been writing much recently

Not feeling as stressed as I could be

But kinda stressed about future stressing

if that makes sense

These last 10 days have been crazy haven’t they?At least for me they have felt like a month. They have went by so slow but have been so action packed . It is very surreal what is happening in the world right now. A lot of people I know aren’t working at all including myself . You don’t see things like this happen ever. Its almost like we are living inside a movie with everything shutting down. I don’t know what do with all this free time. The scariest part to me is not knowing when this will end. I think a lot of people including myself are going to start appreciating the small things that we cant do right now when everything goes back to “normal”.