‘It is a time to rise to be our better selves.’ Use this time to try new things.

Ron’s mother had a favorite saying, “Nothing is so good or bad that it lasts forever.”

In this new temporary world we all are living, it is a good thing to remember. It may be difficult not to worry or even be afraid, but it is a time to rise to be our better selves.

I remember a day back in 1961, when I was a teenager in Pacific Palisades. My mother had dragged me to the market. To our shock hundreds of people were grabbing shopping baskets and throwing things in their carts as if it were a contest. My mother told me to go and get all the toilet paper I could carry.

Women were almost fist fighting over the paper product. I sadly came away empty handed. When mother and I left, I asked why everyone was acting like it was the end of the world. Mother said, “Well it could be.”

It was the Bay of Pigs and nuclear war seemed to hang over our heads. It was the first time I had seen panic. When we got back to our apartment, the building manager knocked on our door, smiling, she gave us two packages of toilet paper telling us she always kept well stocked. She had lived in England during World War II and said she still lived by England’s slogan “Keep calm and carry on.”

It is March 2020, I answer a soft knock on my front door, and on my porch is a friend who had driven from Chowchilla to make her special delivery. In her hands was a huge package of toilet paper and a loaf of bread. I smiled as if the gift was a dozen long stem red roses.

This is just one small example of how many small acts of human kindness that seem to have become a wonderful epidemic reaction to our current pandemic. It is at times of trial we see the actions of earth angels, people who rise to the occasion, and help to make the present more livable. This is a time we are reminded that our actions affect other lives directly.

Maybe if we took just a little of Mary Poppins advice that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down it could help us all a smidge.

A friend who lives in Madrid, Spain, says that at 8 p.m. every night people go out on their balconies and clap and sing, trying to create a little joy. I have heard that is being done in sections of Italy as well. It is hard to sing or whistle and frown at the same time.

Worry decreases good endorphins, while laughter is good medicine. So while it is a difficult time with people out of work, income being lost, children out of school, sports canceled, activities postponed, weddings delayed, businesses being closed and we try to cope with the long list of limitations, we can make a few positive additions to our sheltered life..

We can make a phone chain and regularly check in on friends and family, especially those who live alone. We can check to see what they may need, if we are able to get out. Leave items on their porch. We can send a note to our local hospital thanking them for showing up and being there if you need them.

We can order delivery or take out from your local restaurants who are being so hard hit. We can send cards to convalescent homes where residents can no longer receive visitors. We can write some real letters. We can organize our cupboards, drawers and closets, learning to embrace our inner tidiness. We can bake, knit, crochet, do crosswords or be a child again and do coloring books.

We can paint, start a book, write a book, journal, binge watch shows you have been meaning to watch, try meditation, pray, exercise, give ourselves beauty treatments, play board games, do in home repairs, make a gratitude list, we can try to learn a new language, make a list of all the places you will go when you are free to do so, stretch, spoil your pets and teach them new tricks,and SLEEP.

You have the time to do it now, so catch up on it. Do things SLOWER. We are always rushing. Embrace the time you are being given.

Do not succumb to fear, this is not the end of the world. Grocery shelves will fill again, schools will not remain closed forever. Life will return to normal and suddenly you will not have the time, so embrace it for now.

Scientists are telling us if we shelter in place, it will help flatten the curve, which will allow our hospitals to be able to do their job. So we need to do ours.