April 5, 2020 The Horizon of New Beginnings

Last week was tough for a lot of people. COVID19 is running free throughout much of the country. New York, Louisiana, New Jersey, and many other states are mired in endless debates about what to do. It seems the time for action is a year or so back.

We feel very bad that there seems little to do to help out. So we all wait. Hoping the next shoe doesn't fall, hoping it doesn't fall on us , our friends, or our families.

I spent some time yesterday talking with my mother (she's 80 something). She is living in the desert outside of Los Angeles in a nice little elder apartment near a hospital. Her tone was is up-beat and always has been The local area where she is seems to have none of the virus outbreak, so things look good for her at this point. But we all worry about the near future. I think her upbeat message is worth sharing (even if a bit passively). There will be a bright future following this trouble. But the troubles are still ahead of us.

The economic outcomes of having nearly everyone deemed "non-essential" at home and out of work worries us. Almost a third of the economy is not currently working toward our common goal of living a luxurious life. It seems to me that once the virus shakes out, and people go back to work, there is no way things will return to normal any time soon. So what will become the new normal"?

I can't speculate on this at all. (And I am not at all accustomed to not being able to speculate.) But sitting still isn't the right thing to do, if you can do something. So here's what we plan to do about the needs we might be able to fill for ourselves and others.

Last week I spent some time writing three articles about growing food in times of possibly emergent food shortages. I didn't include this thought, but it was my motivation. My concerns are not that people will suddenly become food less, though some pole may. My concerns are not that people will become house-less, though some of that will happen too. My concern is that people will suddenly become friend-less and live in a world where it is every person for themselves.  My lesser concern is that the supply chains which distribute goods will be slow before to returning to normal.

People can't buy what the stores don't have to sell. People can't make things to sell which are wholly dependent on other people making things. And if we can't make these things then substitutes must be found. Hopefully our substitutes are as good, as cheap to buy, or that my fears are not fulfilled. There is always hope.

Some see the possibility that things which we don't need, and ought not to have, might be off the shelves for a while. And some things we do, which bad for us all, might go away for a while. Loosing ten pounds of undesirable weight is good. Having cancer is not, even if it brings the desired weight loss.

In my conversation with my Mother yesterday, the thought came out that we might all become better people following this crisis. Though the cost might be quite high., this is not a time for despair. People are hopeful.

The next few months will likely not be terrible, just very undesirable. People will die who might have otherwise been saved. So we spent the past few weeks preparing for the eventuality just in case. (Last Wills and the like.) And, like so many others, we did what we could do.

Life will go one, despite the setbacks. Things will return to normal, no matter what we might lose in the process. The key is to get through a crisis that will look better in the rear view mirror than it does in the distance. The key is to keep going and let the journey happen. And keep busy while we wait.

The biggest immediate problem we will all face is: daily boredom and depressing news.

We can help with that:

• If you need something to do, we have much which needs done.
• Some of it is hard work in a time when the gym is out of the question.
• You can get sweaty, dirty, and happy like us.
• Or you can do easy work, just to have something to do.
• If you want to help out, we have things you can do to help out.
• You can grow food for people who may have a hard time buying it.
• Or you can eat the food you grow, and be healthy like us.
• If you simply need a place to be which is not where you are, you can be here.
• We have space outside, a creeks to watch, some chairs to sit in.
• You can be at peace, there is no news to watch here.

Creekside Farm is a nice place to be, despite the dirt, the mud, things which might seem less than desirable. There are things you can do here which include, as they always have, a measure of social distance and you are welcome to come here, if only to sit in the sun and read a book, pet some dogs, cluck at some chickens, dig in the dirt, etc; . . . You are welcome to come, and be here.