COVID-19

One word for 2023

/ edebock / 15 Comments

For each of the past six years I’ve chosen one word to inspire or guide me in the new year as well as a scripture verse to go along with it. My past words have been Still, Grace, Inspire, Bold, Truth, and Freedom.

Little did I know when I chose Freedom as my word for 2022 what a contentious topic it would soon become here in Canada. At the beginning of January, I couldn’t possibly have imagined that less than two months later hordes of protesting truckers would close Canada/US border crossings and take control of the streets surrounding our capital buildings in Ottawa, all in the name of freedom. As I wrote at this time last year, there are really two kinds of freedom, freedom to and freedom from. The so-called Freedom Convoy was fighting for freedom from Covid-19 vaccination mandates. There is no doubt that the pandemic did, at least temporarily, curtail our freedom to travel, to gather in large groups, to celebrate special moments with those we love, and to enjoy many of the activities that we once took for granted, but in my opinion, the protesters were forgetting that with freedom comes responsibility. When I chose Freedom as my one word for 2022, it wasn’t Covid that I had in mind. I was thinking on a very personal level of freedom from trauma induced bitterness that had taken hold in my life.

When it came to choosing a new word for 2023, I considered several possibilities. When I first started thinking about this in late November, I was suffering from scanxiety. As I worried about whether or not my neuroendocrine cancer was spreading throughout my body and thought ahead to hubby’s upcoming prostate cancer surgery, I thought that perhaps Courage was the word I wanted. Once I learned the results of my most recent CT scans, however, that didn’t feel like the right word anymore. For several years I’ve considered choosing Intentional as my one word, but as I thought about that one I realized that I already live quite intentionally. I wanted a word that would give me something more to aspire to in the coming year. But what would that word be?

I thought about how good I feel at the end of a productive day, a day that has gone really well, and tried to come up with a word to describe that feeling. Surely that would be a good word for the coming year. Accomplish came to mind and I almost settled on it, but then I decided that it was too work or task oriented. I do feel great at the end of the day if I’ve accomplished a lot, but I also feel that way when we’ve spent the day hiking or paddling the kayak.

After pondering some more, I finally settled on the right word.

Contentment

According to the Collins English Dictionary, contentment is “a feeling of quiet happiness and satisfaction”. Perfect!

Once I’d finally settled on my word, choosing a scripture verse to go with it was easy. I knew right away that it would be Philippians 4:12b.

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Whether my health continues to be stable or begins to deteriorate, whether the Covid pandemic is truly over or not, whatever my circumstances are in the coming year, I want to be able to say with the apostle Paul that I have learned to be content in any and every situation. As I plan my days, I’ll consider what I need to do to end each day with that feeling of quiet happiness and satisfaction and hopefully act accordingly.

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Have you ever chosen a word to inspire or guide you in a new year? What would your one word for 2023 be?

An entire month of wearing second-hand!

/ edebock / 6 Comments

Logo by SamI did it! Second Hand September wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I spent the entire month wearing only second-hand clothes and to top it off, I didn’t buy any clothes, footwear, or accessories this month, new or second-hand! To clarify, for those who didn’t read my initial Second Hand September post, I did wear underwear, socks, and pyjamas that were purchased new. They always are. I wore a mix of new and second-hand accessories, and as it turned out, all my outerwear was second-hand.

I think I’ve said enough this month about shopping second-hand and reducing our fashion footprint, so today I’m just going to share two more outfits that I wore this week.

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You’ve seen the jeans before, but Sunday was the first time I wore the oatmeal coloured sweater. I bought it at Goodwill in Edmonton in the middle of August when the weather was much too hot for sweaters and didn’t notice until I got it home that the label actually said “maternity”! Apparently the person sorting clothes behind the scenes at Goodwill didn’t notice either as it wasn’t in the maternity section. I can’t help wondering what the young mom who donated it would think if she knew that it was now being worn by a grandmother! Personally, I like the slightly loose fit as it hides my muffin top!

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I bought the necklace at the same time because I thought it went so well with the sweater. My granddaughter who was shopping with me agreed.

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I tested positive for Covid on Monday, so here’s a comfy, casual, stay-at-home outfit… patterned leggings and a solid coloured waffle weave top with three quarter length sleeves. Perfect for a long afternoon nap, it looks and feels a lot like pjs! 

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Again, I bought the necklace on the same second-hand shopping trip as the top because they went so well together. In this case, I actually spent more for the necklace than I did for the top as I bought it at a consignment store. Second-hand shopping is a great way to pick up inexpensive accessories. 

Thanks to being fully vaccinated, mine has been a very mild case of Covid. Aside from being more tired than usual, I’ve had nothing more than a runny nose and a cough. I look forward to being out and about again soon and I especially look forward to delving back into the rest of my wardrobe beginning tomorrow! 

 

A very long short month

/ edebock / 2 Comments

Winter in Canada is long and cold with short hours of daylight. I always start to feel very confined by this time of year and the pandemic has definitely added to that. February might be the shortest month of the year, but this one has felt very long!

The recent rebellion in our capital city and at border crossings across the nation followed almost immediately by Russia’s attack on Ukraine have added to my gloom. The so-called Freedom Convoy in Ottawa and blockades at the border so disgusted me that I pretty much avoided the news for awhile. I blocked so many sources and unfollowed so many people on Facebook that my newsfeed became almost boring! Believe it or not, one person posted something yesterday suggesting that news about the invasion of Ukraine is just meant to distract us from the injustices happening in our own country and we need to be alert! What? Are you kidding me? With that kind of thinking swirling around me, is it any wonder that I feel like burying my head under a blanket and ignoring the whole wide world?

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, in spite of the fact that Covid is far from over, our provincial government has decided to give in to the protesters and as of tomorrow almost all health restrictions will be lifted. Many are celebrating and I understand the feeling, but for some of us, that means less freedom, not more. I’m not immunocompromised and I’m triple vaxxed, but I’ve fought too hard for the past eight and a half years to stay alive and well to put my health at unnecessary risk, so I’ll still be wearing a mask and avoiding close contact, especially with the unvaccinated.

Not being able to travel has definitely added to my frustration. At our age, we definitely feel like our time clock is ticking and opportunities are passing us by. In their retirement, my parents visited 66 countries. Earlier this month, I spent some time reading through the journals that my father kept when they traveled; everything from short two or three day trips to nineteen months wandering Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, living most of that time in their Volkswagen camper van. Reading about their adventures was the next best thing to traveling myself and took my mind off current events, but it also reignited my wanderlust thus adding to my frustration.

A few days ago, realizing that my current state of mind was not a healthy one, I looked back at two of my earlier posts, one written in September 2020 about hitting the Covid-19 wall and the other, written seven months later, about languishing.

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I realized that my feelings of frustration and discouragement weren’t entirely new. I’d been there before. I got over the wall on those occasions and I would again. In the meantime, I decided to look back over the very long shortest month and think about the positives. What were some good things that happened this month?

  • I read eight books; three novels, three memoirs, and two non-fiction books. That’s double the number that I usually read in a month.
  • I may not be able to visit yet, but I started chatting online with our friend, Richard M, who lives in Mexico in Spanish! My daily online language lessons are beginning to pay off.
  • I edited 53 Kiva loans, significantly more than the 40 a month that I committed to when I took on the volunteer position.
  • After seeing a physiotherapist on February 1, I’ve revamped my morning exercise routine, started a new lifting program, and I’m back on the treadmill regularly.
  • Walking in town is treacherous due to icy conditions, but we discovered a mostly unused road not far from town where we can walk safely and enjoy a breath of fresh air when the weather isn’t too cold.
  • I’ve tried several new and delicious recipes using the InstantPot that I received for Christmas.

Mental stimulation, learning something new, doing something for someone else, physical exercise, fresh air, eating well… all of these are key to getting through the doldrums that may, at times, seem overwhelming. The fact that the days are becoming noticeably longer also reminds me that spring is coming and better days are ahead!

The next little while will be busy with another whirlwind of medical appointments. Hospitals and clinics aren’t my favourite places to hang out, but at least they’ll still be following Covid precautions! Sometimes you just have to look at the bright side!

One Word for 2022

/ edebock / 1 Comment

For the past few years I’ve chosen one word to inspire or guide me in the new year as well as a scripture verse to go along with it. There’s actually a whole #OneWord365 movement on the internet urging members to choose a word to focus on every day, all year long; a word that sums up who they want to be or how they want to live.

Much has been said over the past 22 months about how the Covid-19 crisis has robbed us of our freedom. Thinking about that led me to my word for 2022.

Freedom

Interestingly, of the 165 people worldwide who have registered their One Word for 2022 online so far, I’m the only one who chose freedom! I’m a tribe of one!

The Bible verse that I chose to go with this year’s word is a good transition from last year when my word was TRUTH.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

So what is freedom? Oxford Languages defines it this way:

  1. the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint
  2. absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government
  3. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved

There are really two kinds of freedom, freedom to and freedom from. There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has, at least temporarily, curtailed our freedom to travel, to gather in large groups, to celebrate special moments with those we love, to enjoy many of the activities that we once took for granted, and so on. Though it’s difficult to be optimistic with the Omicron variant running rampant, I do hold out hope that some of these freedoms might be returned to us before this new year comes to an end.

As I settled on freedom as my One Word for this year, however, it was actually freedom from that was at the forefront of my mind. While I’m enormously thankful that we, in the western world, are for the most part free from the kinds of oppression that are common elsewhere, I was thinking on a more personal level. For many years, I suffered from what has been identified as betrayal trauma. As a result, I clung to a root of bitterness that gave me a sense of stability. I was afraid that if I let go and let myself trust again, I would be completely blown away and destroyed. Several months ago, as God began to gently loosen my grip on that root of bitterness, I pictured it this way…

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For some of us, art can be a creative and healthy way to deal with trauma. My daughter, whose own journey toward freedom included an art therapy course, illustrated the words of American author and activist, Glennon Doyle, in this beautiful expression.

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Regardless of how confined we are by the present health restrictions or those yet to come, I want to live 2022 in the fullness of the freedom from that I have finally found! I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t also point out that true freedom is found by surrendering our lives to the almighty Creator of the universe. Galatians 5:1 tells us, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Have you ever chosen a word to inspire or guide you in a new year? What would your one word for 2022 be?

Stop exploiting Holocaust symbols!

/ edebock / 6 Comments

I’m going to jump into another Covid controversy. Perhaps I shouldn’t, but sometimes there are things that just need to be said!

For several months, people protesting proposed mandatory “vaccine passports” have been comparing them to symbols that the Nazis forced Jews in occupied Europe to wear and to the numbered tattoos forced upon the prisoners who were abused and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

Last Wednesday, US Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted, and then appears to have deleted, a black-and-white image of a clenched fist with a number tattooed on the wrist. “If you have to carry a card on you to gain access to a restaurant, venue or event in your own country, that’s no longer a free country,” the meme stated. That tweet echoed comments made in May by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, a conspiracy theorist and QAnon enthusiast, who compared mask mandates to the Holocaust.

One of Massie’s staffers, Andrew Zirkle, took to Twitter the morning after the objectionable tweet appeared to announce his resignation, citing it as his reason for quitting. “I quit. I wanted to let everyone who knows me personally to know that as soon as I got in to work this morning, I resigned my position in the Office of Congressman Thomas Massie because of his tweet comparing the horrors of the Holocaust to vaccine passports.” Now that’s a position I can respect!  

I have since seen the Massie meme reposted on Facebook several times. To put it bluntly, these thoughtless analogies are ignorant and incredibly offensive. They trivialize the deaths of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. I can only imagine how painful it must be for survivors who are still alive today to see people, including elected officials, making flippant comparisons between what we’re experiencing during this pandemic and the unimaginable atrocities that they witnessed or endured.   

What really breaks my heart is when I see Christians posting these things. Though the Bible calls us to unity, to be like-minded, it embarrasses me to be lumped together with those who so casually and thoughtlessly spread such hurtful messages and, while I probably shouldn’t, I feel a need to apologize to my Jewish friends on their behalf!

There’s nothing wrong with respectfully expressing your opinion, just stop exploiting Holocaust symbols to do it. Please, people, be a little more creative and a lot more respectful!

 

Has Covid changed how you dress?

/ edebock / 5 Comments

LogoMy mother was 17 when WWII broke out on September 1, 1939 and 23 when it ended six years later. I remember her telling me about how fashions changed during the war. Shortages and efforts to conserve precious materials for the war effort brought about shorter hemlines and more streamlined silhouettes in women’s suits and dresses. Decorative elements disappeared, resulting in a more classic style. For men, single-breasted suits replaced double-breasted, lapels narrowed, and trousers were no longer made with cuffs. There were even restrictions on the number of pockets a garment could have. 

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With many of the men away at war, women were called upon to replace them in the work force. My mother left school and went to work in a paper mill. Pants became a staple of women working in factories. Once they discovered the comfort and convenience of wearing pants, they were reluctant to give them up when the war ended. This resulted in a permanent change in fashion. I don’t remember my grandmother ever wearing pants, even to work in the garden, but pants were very definitely part of my Mom’s wardrobe for the rest of her life. 

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Mom dressed for the mill

Until I started doing research for this post, I didn’t realize that jumpsuits (or boilersuits as they’re called in the UK) which seem to come and go as ladies fashion to this day, had their roots in a very practical item that originated during WWII. Known at that time as a “siren suit”, this one piece garment could be hastily pulled on over pyjamas or a nightgown when the siren blew and the wearer had to escape to an air raid shelter. 

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Even Winston Churchill had a siren suit!

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We aren’t living in wartime, nor do we face the deprivation that our parents and grandparents faced during those difficult days, but the past fourteen months have been a time of unprecedented upheaval and whether we like it or not, Covid will result in cultural change. Fashion is a potent reflection of a period in time and it’s interesting to think about how our current situation is changing how we dress. 

I have one friend who has already been informed that she will continue to work from home even after the pandemic is over and I know of several others who are expecting the same thing. Brands and retailers have seen a huge shift in the kind of clothing that people are purchasing. While many of us simply aren’t shopping at all except for essentials, sales of comfort-wear items, such as sweatpants and leggings, have increased. The question now is whether this turn toward casual, easy-to-wear clothing will persist once life returns to something closer to normal.

Has Covid changed the way you dress? If so, do you think this will be a permanent change? Is there something you look forward to buying and wearing once the pandemic is over? 

It happened!

/ edebock / 8 Comments

I had my second Covid-19 vaccine injection today! It was an uphill battle getting here, but it happened!

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Continuing from where I left off when I wrote the post Am I expendable? on April 18th, I called my MLA’s office and the Ministry of Health. By that time, the cry for cancer patients to receive their second vaccine within the recommended time frame had hit the media and was definitely on the government’s radar. Though I wasn’t given any details, I was told that a decision would be announced soon.

Finally, late on the afternoon of April 22, the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta announced that cancer patients and others who were severely immunocompromised could begin booking their second appointments by phone the following day. Actually getting the appointment was quite a gong show though. I started calling first thing the next morning, but the lines were clogged. I was absolutely elated when I got through later that morning and was able to book my appointment for the morning of April 30, just two days beyond the 21 day interval recommended for the Pfizer vaccine. My excitement was short-lived, however. Within a couple of hours, I received an email, with no explanation, telling me that my appointment had been cancelled!

I immediately phoned again and made a second appointment, only to have that one cancelled the following day! At that point, I started to think that somehow the information that I was a cancer patient must not be getting into the system. I admit to being pretty hot under the collar by the time I called a third time to make the same appointment! I mentioned my suspicion and the gal who did the booking agreed with me. She told me that there was a new button to click to indicate that a caller was part of the patient group who could now book their second injections. Apparently those who took my first two calls either didn’t know that or forgot. Fortunately, while all of this was going on, today didn’t completely fill up and I was still able to get in.  

I’m glad that no one checked my blood pressure during the two days that it took to finally get an appointment that stuck! The whole rigamarole certainly added to my stress level and I almost feared checking my email for the next few days in case I once again saw a “Covid-19 Immunization Cancellation” message waiting for me! After fighting so hard to see this happen, I didn’t feel 100% certain that it would until the needle was actually in my arm! 

The fight isn’t over yet though. The majority of cancer patients across Canada still don’t have access to their second vaccine within the timeline proven most effective by clinical trials. CONECTed, a national network of oncology groups supported by over 17 national patient organizations, has launched a campaign asking the federal government to revise the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommendation for cancer patients so that they would receive 2 doses of Covid vaccine within 21 to 28 days of each other. They are also asking provincial and territorial governments as well as local administrators to ensure that adequate directives and resources are provided to achieve this goal. 

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Being fully vaccinated isn’t actually going to make any difference to how I live my life at least in the short term. It typically takes two weeks after a person is fully vaccinated for the body to produce enough antibodies to provide protection from the virus and even then, with the Covid-19 situation here in Alberta the worst it’s ever been, life won’t be getting back to “normal” anytime soon.  

Languishing

/ edebock / 5 Comments

Last September, six months into the current pandemic, I wrote about hitting the Covid-19 wall. I got over that wall, as I knew I probably would, but every once in awhile the feeling returns. Today I learned a new word for what I, and probably many of you, have been experiencing. Apparently, we’re languishing. 

The dictionary describes languishing as losing or lacking vitality, growing weak or feeble, or suffering from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation. Sound familiar? I thought so!

A recent article in The New York Times calls this “the neglected middle child of mental health”. We’re not depressed, but neither are we flourishing. “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

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As a lover of words, I’m glad to have found one that accurately describes how I’ve been feeling. I’m an introvert. I don’t mind solitude, but sometimes too much of a good thing is just too much. There are days when I get up in the morning and the hours seem to stretch out endlessly in front of me; days when I wonder how I’m going to fill those hours. My life hasn’t ground to a complete standstill, of course, but like everyone else’s, it looks a lot different than it did at the beginning of 2020. I’m missing many of the things that once filled my calendar. 

According to the New York Times article, “Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference.” Perhaps identifying the feeling and giving it a name is an important step toward doing something about it. 

Back in January, when my online friend, Sue Burpee, who writes the blog High Heels in the Wilderness, was languishing (I don’t know if she knew that that was what she was doing) she wrote a post entitled Just One Thing… Every Day. In it, she wrote about asking herself, “What productive thing should I achieve today?” One thing a day became her plan; one that I’ve tried to adopt.

I already had a daily routine and I knew that I was accomplishing something useful every day even if it was just making sure that there were meals on the table, but I felt like I was in a rut with no end in sight. I was definitely languishing! Trying to add one different thing to my usual routine every day has helped. Yesterday it was baking four dozen muffins, today it’s writing this unplanned blog post. Thirteen months into the pandemic, it’s easy to focus on all the things we’re missing. Trying to do something outside my usual routine, especially something that feels productive, is at least a partial antidote. 

Still, if you happen to see me and ask how I’m doing, instead of saying “Great” or “Fine”, I might just say “I’m languishing!”

Am I expendable?

/ edebock / 11 Comments

Cancer has been trying to defeat me for almost 8 years. Now it looks like it’s trying to recruit Covid-19 to help it out. No, I don’t have Covid and I’m trying to do everything I can to keep from getting it, but I’ve run into a dangerous roadblock that is affecting cancer patients across our country. 

Vaccines have been touted as our way out of this pandemic and I believe that they probably are IF they’re given correctly. That’s where the problem lies. According to the product monographs and based on the trials that were performed before the vaccines were approved, the second Pfizer dose should be given 21 days after the first, Moderna 28 days, and AstraZeneca 4 to 12 weeks. Here in Canada, however, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has recommended that in order to maximize the number of individuals benefiting from the first dose of vaccine, the interval between doses be extended to four months or 16 weeks.

While there is no evidence to show that this is an effective way of administering these vaccines, the extended period between doses may not make a big difference to the general population, but that is not true for those of us with cancer. Research conducted in the UK has shown that while an antibody response was found in 97% of the healthy volunteers tested after their first injection, the response was less than 40% in patients with cancer. That number increased dramatically to 95% if they received their second shot at the recommended time, but only 43% if that time was extended. 

I had my first injection of the Pfizer vaccine on April 7. That means that I have 10 days until I should be getting the second one, but I feel like I’ve been beating my head against a wall trying to make that happen. I’ve called Alberta Health Services to no avail. The clinic where I received my cancer treatments was unable to help. I’ve attended a webinar with members of various patient advocacy groups across the country and I’ve contacted the media. A petition has collected more than 20,000 signatures over the past few days and news sources are coming onside, but will the government listen? Ontario and Manitoba are moving forward with the second dose for cancer patients, but here in Alberta not one word of hope has been heard from our government. It would seem that they have decided that those of us who are already fighting for our lives are expendable! 

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Photo: Spencer Davis

Fashion trends for spring 2021

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LogoDepending on where you live, it might be early to start thinking about spring, but as I look out on a bleak winter landscape in the midst of pandemic restrictions, I need something to remind myself that better days are coming! In my opinion, much of what is being shown by fashion designers for spring 2021 simply doesn’t fit well with our lockdown, stay-at-home, Covid pandemic life, but there are a few takeaways that might boost our morale or add a bit of optimism to our spring closets.

Spring promises to be full of colour. Yellow, the most luminous colour of the spectrum, is perhaps the most popular for the new season. Yellow is considered the colour of happiness, optimism, enlightenment, creativity, and sunshine, all things we hope for as we emerge from the darkness of this particular winter. Pastels promise to be popular. Think buttercream, mint green, lavender, sky blue, and bubblegum pink. Vibrant, optimistic colours like marigold, tangerine, and hot pink will also be on trend. Bold florals and tie dye will catch the eye as will multicoloured, folk inspired coats like this one.  

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Slouchy tailoring, well suited to our desire for comfort during these stressful times, will be very evident this spring. Oversized, button-down shirts will be popular. Think “hubby’s shirt” or “Dad’s shirt” in feminine colours. Oversized blazers or boyfriend jackets are also on trend. 

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I don’t think that skinny jeans are going to disappear completely just yet, but again in keeping with our more sedentary lifestyle these days, the silhouette for pants is changing significantly. My daughter was in Walmart earlier this week and mentioned that where there used to be a wall of jeans, there was now nothing but sweatpants! Yes, sweatpants have definitely come into their own during the pandemic and not only for exercise. Many are quite stylish looking. 

Though sweatpants are definitely having a moment, blue jeans aren’t disappearing from the fashion landscape. This season’s pants, jeans included, will be loose fitting and wide legged, reminiscent of the 1970s and 80s. 

The key to looking put together instead of sloppy in the upcoming season’s loose fitting garments is to create balance by pairing them with slim fitting pieces. Wear an oversized shirt with leggings or those skinny jeans that are still in your closet. Try the loose fitting boyfriend blazer over a fitted tee or wear baggy pants with a cropped or slim fitting top, perhaps even one of the “second-skins” that are popular for this spring. Unfortunately, these stretchy, body hugging knits probably won’t be flattering to those of us with middle age bulges that we’d prefer to keep hidden! 

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A few other things to look for this spring include big shoulders, again a throwback the the 1980s, and puffed sleeves. Cinched waists with statement belts will be popular and then there’s netting. Not fishnet stockings this time, but mesh dresses worn over bodysuits. Personally, I’m not sure how well that one will catch on, but we shall see! Though mini skirts will still be seen, midi and maxi lengths will be more popular this season. And then, of course, there are the shackets that I wrote about last week.  

Do you see yourself adopting any of these trends when winter comes to an end? I’m partial to the big shirts and, since there’s absolutely no yellow in my closet, I may have to look for something in that sunny colour to brighten things up.