Relephant Read: Here’s how we get through This. {Updated} ~ Waylon 

We are going to come out the other side of “this thing” super buff, over-sexed, supremely meditative, filled to the brim with a new philosophy, well-rested, and clean: clean closets, clean homes, clean garages.

Dammit, we’re gonna be clean.

We’ll dust off the yoga and pilates CDs we have sitting on our shelves downstairs. We’ll bend and twist, but we will not break. We’ll wipe down our mats and whisper prayers for peace and wellness.

We’re either going to be filing for divorce, or somehow finding ourselves rekindled and deeply in love once again.

Some of us might get pregnant.

We’ll have some new hobbies that don’t require classes except for instantly gratifying YouTube tutorials.

I won’t mention any names, but some of us might learn to knit. Macramé is a solid, creative outlet and quite trendy. We, and I’m not saying who, might just crank out a few intricate wall hangings. I know the sewers out there are finally finishing the pillows they started last spring.

Some of us might take up an instrument. We’ll pick up that guitar, sitting in the corner of our son’s bedroom, and start working on some basic chords. We’ll have “Blackbird” and “Yellow Ledbetter” down pat by the end of the week.

We’ll cook. We’ll empty the sad corners of our pantries and throw things together like an episode of “Chopped.” We’ll be surprised and delighted at our results in the kitchen using those damn red lentils and that weird bag of almond flour.

Or we’ll binge-watch every show and every movie we ever wanted to see. We’ll cue up some of the classics we haven’t seen in a while, and then we’ll begin quoting lines to each other— funny little nothings that make us laugh again and again.

We’ll have verbal shoot-outs on Facebook over partisan politics and this administration’s response to our health crisis. With pumped fists, we’ll post graphics and articles and various screenshots of relevant Tweets. We’ll back down, and heat up and hopefully find a middle place. We’ll share our fears through our words. We’ll hold space for one another. We’ll talk about taking things for granted and living in the present. We’ll talk about what is a luxury and what is a right and why we must continue to fight.

We’ll go to the store, but we’ll be in and out just for the things we need. We will thank all those working to stock the shelves as fast as they can. We’ll bow to those who are working to service our needs.

We’ll be vocally grateful to healthcare professionals and those on the front lines. We’ll bring them comfort meals and coffee. We’ll be silently grateful, too.

We’ll call our older loved ones but we will not visit.

No, we will not.

Some of us, and again, I won’t say who, might finally finish our novel: writing, reading, doesn’t matter.

We’ll clean, and text, and organize, and sing. We’ll sleep. We’ll imagine. We’ll go for long walks with our dog. We’ll look for faces in the trees. We’ll look up at the sky for answers. We’ll inhale and exhale, and appreciate the moment right in front of us.

We’ll be tender, and silly, and serious, and mindful.

We’ll wait.

And most of us will “dream of better lives, the kind which never hate—trapped in a state of imaginary grace.”

Oh, hell yes.

“I’ll stop the world and melt with you.”

We are by ourselves, but we are not alone.

#stayhome #Omshanti #flattenthecurve #shitisreal #staythefuckhome 

~ Editor’s note: title and a few lines inspired by: “I Melt With You” by Modern English.

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