It is hard to believe that it has almost been a year since that fateful late spring day in May on the corner of Cup Foods, roughly three miles away from my house. For the past eleven months, like most Minneapolitans we have struggled to understand the trauma that has happened in our beloved city. And now here we are once again, with our stores boarded up, police and National Guard patrolling our city, awaiting in anxiety over what the verdict will be. While we pray for justice and peace, we wonder what will become of our city. Minneapolis is not a bad place. Yes, it has many problems but so does so many other places around the world. Racism exists everywhere and always has. Dismantling such a powerful system will take generations and generations of hard, relentless work. While I have so many opinions about what is going on and wish I felt that I could share them,  I also have hope. Hope in our children who understand a lot more than I ever did at that age. So, as we await the verdict we will pray for a better future for all.

While many of these incredibly powerful murals have disappeared, their messages still remain strong.

George Floyd Mural at Cup Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).

Last week marks one year since I penned my fateful post Life in the Midst of a Pandemic, as the first case of COVID-19 came to my home state of Minnesota, and life as we had known it was gone. The pandemic had officially arrived and the world had come to a roaring, startling stop as country after country, state after state, and store after store shut down and such simple commodities as toilet paper, hand wipes and bleach became rare commodities worthy of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. From home office-ing in your yoga pants to home schooling at the dining room table to do-it-yourself haircuts, Netflix binges, new found hobbies and Zoom call and Zoom call and Zoom call, slowly we molded into the bland, isolation and routine of a lonely, colorless pandemic life.

While I’ve picked up my pen many times throughout the past year, trying to capture everything that I’ve felt over this rollercoaster of a crazy ride, the moment I tried to put ink to paper I stopped, paralyzed by an overwhelming weight of inertia and ennui. My thoughts unclear, my feelings murky, and at times simply lost. How do I want to remember this past year and look back? So much has been lost and there has been so much pain.

Then you throw in the violent death of George Floyd roughly two miles from my home, riots, protests, and one of the most divisive elections in U.S. history, and my once talkative soul has been left utterly speechless. Too much to process, too much to try to understand and too much pain. It certainly has been one hell of a year! But without wanting to dwell and get too depressing, there is also a silver lining of hope.

For me personally, I look at this past year as a total reset. It has given me a lot of time to think, and also do some of those things I’ve always wanted to do like take that darn Spanish class, fix up the house, and quite frankly spend more time just being instead of always doing. Getting used to the uncomfortable, the isolation, and dread of routine. Spending more time together as a family of four while missing deeply our extended family and friends. It has also been a time for reflection and to be grateful for everything I’ve been able to do so far and all I’ve been able to see of this amazing planet.

It started as a cough. At first, we thought nothing of it except that it was our 15-year old son’s normal fall cold. He gets a bad cold every single year and it always starts with a cough and then a stuffy nose. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except that this cold was about a month earlier.

Besides the cough, our son was fine and continued to get up to do his online school. Over the weekend, we hosted our usual small “bubble” of friends at our house, one of my daughter’s friends and our neighbor, the small group who we have been hanging out with since the pandemic began. We told them about Max’s cough but honestly thought nothing of it. We live in a city of a million people and out of everyone we knew, only one person in our circle of friends had tested positive for COVID. It still felt like something we only read about every day in the newspaper but that hadn’t truly reached us.

Like most of my family and friends, we have spent the past eight months following all the Covid rules and living a pretty boring, isolated life. We wear masks everywhere (thankfully it is a state mandate), my husband works from home, we don’t go out to eat indoors at a restaurant, have not flown anywhere, don’t go to the gym or do anything considered risky. We have hardly socialized with friends except for outside, socially distanced. Since March, we have basically lived a very sheltered, limited life and have only allowed our small bubble inside our home. The only risk we took was allowing both of our teenage kids to play outdoor sports. I had felt as a parent that so much has been taken away from them, and sports was the one thing they had left. The risk was small since they were outdoors but it was there.

Despite all the precautions we took, somehow Covid made it to our house, and when I got the call from our doctor that my son tested positive, I was completely shocked and terrified.

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them”. – Rabindranath Tagore

It is rather unbelievable how much our lives can change in a matter of weeks and even days at this point. As the world moves into the unimaginable lockdown, many of us are feeling scared, isolated and anxious about the future. I read a post from a fellow travel blogger, Lexi of One Foot Out the Door called Hello from Houston and it sparked a glimmer of hope and connection in this uncertain, unprecedented time. Wouldn’t it be nice if more of us checked in and shared with each other what we are all going through in our own parts of the world? Maybe it would bring us more together and help us feel less alone? Without further ado, here is my own “Hello From Minnesota” update. While honestly, this post is a far cry from any of my travel writing, I feel like it is the least I can do right now to feel connected to my online community.

Please share with me your story. If you write your own “Hello from” post, please share a link in the comments as it would be nice to start a thread of messages from around the world.

I’d love to know how everyone is doing. Stay well!

Hello from Minneapolis, Minnesota my home of over twenty years where we are blessed with a cosmopolitan city and a state of over 10,000 lakes.

As I sit here at my desk in my home office, I think how bizarre it is to be entering our second full week of the “new normal” with my entire family working and learning from home under one roof. My son’s high school was the first to close indefinitely on Friday, March 13th and my daughter’s middle school was next. A few days after, every school in the entire state was ordered to close until May but I’m wondering if that is even realistic. Meanwhile, my husband’s office officially closed and locked their doors last week and he has been working in his home office in our basement. It feels so odd to all be under one roof 24/7! But it also brings me peace in this isolating, scary time.

While we aren’t on a “shelter in place” order yet (this starts tomorrow, Friday March 27th until April 10th) we are told to stay home and if we do venture out to social distance of the standard six feet. Our restaurants and bars have closed until at least May but again probably longer. Malls and theaters shut down while more and more stores are trying to offer order online and curb side pick up. The streets are empty of traffic yet on nice days it feels like everyone has come out of hibernation and is walking around our lakes (which is a problem with social distancing!).

Almost two weeks into the “new normal”  is not only hard to believe but mentally hard. I keep re-reading all the quotes I have on mental toughness and strength to get me through this pandemic without losing hope. I also have truly tried to stop reading too much news as it just seems to increase my anxiety levels. I have always been a worrywart and it is hard to not be one right now. Yet on the positive light, I feel so blessed to live in a state with amazing leadership by our governor and excellent health care and businesses that are all doing whatever they can to help out. Medtronic is making more ventilators, 3M is ramping up their mask production, and Mayo Clinc is helping with the backlog of tests. Minnesotans are stepping in to help the vulnerable by donating food items, creating makeshift food pantries, volunteering and more. I have never felt so proud to be a part of this community. We are all in this together.

Since this all began, I have realized how much of my normal everyday life that I took for granted. Yes it was too busy. Yes it was a bit crazy, but it was my life and I loved it.

The morning early rises to drive my son to school. Listening to music and the radio in the car while I ran my errands. The ease of going grocery shopping or the delight of going out to eat with friends. Seeing my community. Going anywhere besides being stuck in the house save my daily walks. It is unimaginable how much our lives have all changed and how quickly. If I think about it for too long I know I will start to cry.

As we prepare to really hunker down even more before our two week order to stay home except if absolutely necessary I remind myself in such difficult times like these what I’m grateful for:

• Getting outside for a walk each day in nature and seeing people I know from afar has been wonderful.
• Lots and lots of family time while we are all cooped up in the house.
• Making slow cooker meatballs and other homemade treats with the kids.
• The birds are singing and Spring is on its way meaning I can spend more time outside after a long winter.
• More Zoom, Skype and Facetime calls with friends and family around the world.
• An overall feeling of a stronger community. I am encouraged by how much we’ve all been able to come together.
• Food, shelter, water and love.
• My home. My Minnesota.

Things that I miss and will be so thrilled to be able to do again someday:

• My extended family! We all live so far apart and all across the US. I long to be near them but simply can’t for awhile.
• Being out and about. I have never been a homebody and have always had a hard time being in the house for an entire day. This has been a real test for me to find joy in being “trapped” inside my house when I long to be out wandering about and part of something bigger than my home.
• Travel. Travel. Travel. This is a selfish thing to miss in a time like this one but travel has always been the one things that I love so much besides my family. I am not sure when travel will resume again but I am so incredibly blessed to have been able to do what I’ve done over the years.
• My community. From the restaurants to the coffee shops to the stores and schools and even my gym. I sure miss seeing each and every person that makes up my community.
• My travel work and blogging. I was just getting started working with some really amazing travel outfitters around the world but that has dried up as has my travel writing.

So like I said above, this is not by any means an excellent piece of writing but it is writing from my heart. I want everyone who reads this to know that I am thinking of you all, wherever you are in the world. Please let me know how you are doing. I will leave with this quote, a silver lining to this difficult time.

“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value – the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it’s all about”. – Joseph Campbell

Update: I’m going to keep a running list here of fellow bloggers who are updating us from around the world on what their lives have been like and the impact. It is a great way to keep us all connected. Please check out their posts and offer words of encouragement. We are all in this together! 

Hello From Houston – One Foot Out the Door

Silver Linings in the Storm – Plus Ultra

Joburg COVID-19 :Lockdown Journal Day 1 – 2Summers

In the Time of Corona – In Flow with Otto

Hello From New Hampshire – RoarLoud

Hello From Fort Lauderdale – Heidi Siefkas 

Hello From Northern Virginia – EAt. Live. Stay. Will Travel For Food

Hello from Lancashire, UK – Starting from the Middle

Hello from Florida! A New Appreciation of Home – Fit, Life, Travel

Hello from Bergen – In Flow with Otto

Thoughts in Uncertain Times – What’s in my brain as New Zealand experiences the international civil emergency in New Zealand that is COVID-19

Something to Ponder About

Ditch Digging – Linda Hensely 

Hello from Equador – Zeebra Designs and Destinations

Hello from Lockdown in New Zealand – Travel Bugs World

If you have written a similar post, please let me know and I will share.