Deep Gratitude for Vaccines

This month of February marked my 66th birthday. Right on top of that I tested positive for covid-19. It was rotten timing, and yet as this month ends, I am left mainly with a sense of deep gratitude. 

We dreaded that positive test for 2 years now. At the beginning of 2020 most people were intensely fearful and anxious that death might be around the corner. Millions died in 1916 from the Spanish flu. So we locked down in our homes, barely going out for groceries. Those were tense months of watching the covid dashboard, the numbers by state and country of infections, deaths and recoveries. 

Like a ray of hope. the following February were able to get the vaccine. Then last fall, a booster. 

Now the strains have become less virulent, which is what I must have had. It was a cold that lasted but a few days. 

My gratitude toward researchers, scientists, doctors and all medical professionals is profound. What would have played out without a vaccine? We've now had 2 years of closures, restrictions, worry, masks and confusion. How would that have been without a vaccine? 

Gratitude. Let me say it again, and again and again. The fearful virus went through me, and my body was able to fight it off in less than 2 weeks because of science and those who spend many hours in labs, hospitals and classrooms working hard to learn more every day. It makes me almost wish I'd become a research scientist, unlocking the secret of our bodies on that molecular level which most of us take for granted. When we are well, and there are no threats, in labs all over the world talented, focused people are still working to learn more.

I feel love and gratitude for their presence. 

No Festive Christmas Lights on Jan.6 , 2022

 Today is the horrible anniversary of a year ago. January 6, 2021 when angry white people with guns and bad intentions broke into our Nation's Capitol. The things they did, the terrible words they used, the violence, the disrespect....it was nothing I could have imagined in the country I love.

Tonight there were some candlelight vigils around the U.S.. I almost went to a gathering in North Portland. While checking for new gatherings closer to me, I found one which merely asked participants to place a candle in the window.

I am doing that. I usually turn on my Christmas lights. I left them off to illustrate the gravity of this night .

To my delight most of  my neighbors did not turn their lights on tonight either. I took a walk around to confirm. There were a few, but many I know have lights that were completely off. Thank you neighbors, for sharing in this little way the gravity of this anniversary.

I will never forget reading the accounts of our representatives who were at the capitol that day to certify the 2020 presidential election. One of them wrote of his experience afterwards, wiping up excrement which one of the intruders had smeared around the senate chambers. This is how I will remember those people, smearing poop, lies, hatred and bringing injury and death. 

What now dear country?