Walking in Pandemic Times

When I think about what has changed over the past two years, obviously, the list is pretty endless. There is one thing though that I am reminded of nearly every day. It is small but it makes me sad- hence the photo reminder to myself that was taken on a walk early on during pandemic days.

I walk Daisy almost every afternoon. Admittedly, she visits the backyard on her own if it is rainy or super cold but let’s say ninety percent of the days, I take her on a walk. I also try to walk myself as often as I can- for exercise, for fresh air, to clear my head. So most days, I am out walking our sidewalks at some point during the day. In the before times, as a partially extroverted, stay-at-home mom, I was always on the lookout for people, for someone to say hi to, for someone to chat with along the way. The human interaction would be an upside of my walks. When the pandemic first hit, this changed. If I saw people, I would cross the street to avoid unnecessary exposure. In those early days though, even from across the street, people would stop to check in- neighbors and strangers alike. The world had that post September 11th feel. There was a need to talk to everyone, to hear everyone’s story, to know that people were ok. As time went on though, we all fell in to the normality of this. Can you believe I just wrote that? We fell in to the normality of living in a pandemic- yikes. I don’t love the truth of that but here we are. So while I kept crossing the street, we stopped checking in on one another. I continued to cross the street even when things were better- when our numbers were lower, when we knew we were pretty safe outside. I’m not really sure why. Habit? Residual fear? Regardless of the reason, my walks have become pretty solitary and now each day, I think about it and worry that this is just one small thing that has changed over these years.

I’d love to hear from you. What’s one small thing that has changed for you? The bad- or as the wise sidewalk artist reminds us- the good.