After that extreme storm last night, I’m feeling fortunate.  We still have a roof over our heads, and can keep paying for it.  Many states just south of us got slammed with tornadoes and flooding, on top of being in economic hardship in lockdown.

Some places already had long lines for food banks, like in some developing nation, whereas we have adequate supplies for now.  In fact, we just got one of those one-time IRS stimulus/relief deposits, which will go straight to savings.  We’re retired, so we get our small monthly fixed income, which pays the bills.

We’re still symptom-free, and intend to stay that way, unlike some.  Other than emergency runs every few weeks, we can stay at home and stay busy.  Things that would have seemed like a big inconvenience before, now seem manageable.  We’re your basic introvert loners, so we’re used to not socializing.  It is doable.

Sometimes the anxiety and surreality get to me.  I imagine the worst, and not being able to go deal with it.  I see our inept, negligent “leaders” denying reality and science, having no intention of serving the needs of their constituents.  I know in the long run, history will expose their self-serving crimes, but maybe not in my lifetime.  I see the extremes of disaster and loss it takes to shake people out of their complacency and delusional thinking.  More immediately, I miss my son and wonder if/when I’ll see him or my grandkids again.

So, I just throw myself more into facilitating natural beauty and habitats around me.  I watch as more of my native wildflowers and trees come up and thrive with some help.  Surreal as it is, the natural world just goes on creating, with or without us.  We can choose to live with science, or die in denial.  Maybe when we get too self-destructive, nature has to reset the balance of things.  I like to think in my minuscule way I’m helping to restore some balance.

Anyway, here are flowers.  The last photo is the “R&B” dogwood, courtesy of “the Bobs”, which happily bloomed for the first time this year.