Never Break the Chain

A human chain of loved people

And if you don't love me now
You can never love me again
I can still hear you say      that you'll never break the chain.                          Fleetwood Mac

We're all isolated and this is a new reality. This is happening in many parts of the country and all over the world with the Covid19 virus threat.  It's no picnic but I can hardly complain. I'm retired and among the most blessed at this time of crisis in the world. I live in the country on acres of mostly wooded land and I can walk miles right now without running into anyone. My neighbors are also taking the physical distancing seriously, bless them. I'm not a hoarder but a recovering Catholic from a large family and a restaurant family to boot. Food has always been a loved and respected part of my life. Like my Japanese and Jewish friends I have a very well stocked pantry. My husband and sons would laugh at that modest description. In fact the pantry is always stuffed with essentials to see me through for weeks, possibly a year.

I've recently started to Zoom.  Initially this was with my sisters and a couple of guys from our guitar camp and soon will do so with my sons and their families. This is delightful yet frankly leaves me with a longing to embrace all of them. How I delight in those faces, how I miss the physical contact.

All of us are facing isolation differently.  In some cases where people are needing contact, several women who I care about deeply, have sent me requests to offer poems, songs, or inspirational quotes. Doesn't that sound divine? However, all of these request by email or text ask me to forward, cut and paste the information to from eight to twenty [!] women. I'm ask for your forgiveness up front because these are all chain letters of a sort and I swore years ago I would never do that again. I will break the chain every time. I'm notoriously the pill who agonizes but doesn't follow through, hence breaking the chain. I'm sorry to disappoint, but not sorry enough to follow through with the requests.

Listen to the wind blow,

People with lots of stuff in the air

down comes the night                       Running in the shadows,
damn your love, damn your lies
Break the silence,                                  damn the dark, damn the light       Fleetwood Mac

Inevitably the chain mail or texting doesn't feel fun or exciting instead, to me,  feels like a burden. I believe it only encourages people to think I actually like to forward these messages to others. When I think of the woman receiving the chain letter, I imagine, like me, she might just shake her head and sigh deeply with a feeling of dread. Don't know. Fill me in on your opinion, please. Perhaps the rest of the known female population is waiting in anticipation for the next chain mail or text with the opportunity to connect. Want to Zoom or write a chatty email, or send an interesting article my way? I'm your girl.

I'm breaking the silence. I'm not willing to participate in a 'chain' of any kind. I want to thank, and  I  will! all the women who sent me the texts or emails. Seriously, I truly prefer the no obligation communication: I'll send a thank you note and expect no answer necessarily to my thank you note. Otherwise it's thank you for your thank you note, I've been meaning to thank you...etc.

susansmagicfeather  copyright 2020 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved, thank you.