March

“Your track record for surviving your bad days is 100 percent.”

I read that in a great interview with Amy Poehler in this past week’s NYT Magazine, a quote she attributed to Steve Harvey and a lot of tic tic videos, cultural references I admit to being only marginally familiar with, although I’m interested in the latter.

March came at last and I want to give myself and everyone else who had a brutal winter a lot of credit for getting through the past few especially rough months. It’s still winter, we still have a ways to go but a Covid 19 relief bill is in sight – even though likely butchered to cut out a much needed raise in minimum wage; over 50 million people have received at least one vaccination shot and it’s now anticipated that all willing adults can receive vaccinations by the end of May; we have a President who believes in public health and climate change and international diplomacy. Even when I disagree with him or think he is not doing enough in certain areas, these are normal, expected criticisms of a leader, not abject horror as I felt over the last four years.

On the home front, we go from 2 to 4 days of school a week come March 22nd, and in the interim, have some additional hours at a school-affiliated program. There are more sweatshirt days in the forecast, which is a good thing because V has recently sworn off winter jackets. T and I both got our second vaccine shots and I am so grateful and relieved for that, and for the wonderful health clinic in Newark providing such excellent care to its patients. The snow is nearly melted and I’m hoping that is it for the season.

All of this means I may have more breathing room by the end of the month, more time to work on things that have been on hold. For V, that means the daunting task of finishing his application for DDD, the agency that will providing supports once he turns 21 next year. I have time for my volunteer work as a board member of a new effort to start an adult residential and day program for individuals over 21, initiated by parents and staff of V’s school. And I want to start submitting essays for publication, something that has been backburnered for a very long time. Just getting out a weekly blog post has been a lot. I am grateful for my small circle of readers but I so long for more.

I’m trying to be realistic too, as the pandemic is far from over and it will take some time to get back up to speed. No doubt there still will be some bad days ahead. (Sundays, with no help, is a particularly challenging day, especially when the weather is cold or rainy.) But all in all more time to build back better, as our current President says. March is more lamb than lion, whatever it brings. Here’s to better days ahead.