It's Not You. It's Everyone.

February 24, 2021

Poet Donna Ashworth captures the moment:

You’re not imagining it, nobody seems to want to talk right now.
Messages are brief and replies late.
Talk of catch-ups on Zoom are perpetually put on hold.
Group chats are no longer pinging all night long.

It’s not you.
It’s everyone.
We are spent.
We have nothing left to say.
We are tired of saying ‘I miss you’ and ‘I cant wait for this to end’.
So we mostly say nothing, put our heads down and get through each day.

You’re not imagining it.
This is a state of being like no other we have ever known because we are all going through it together but so very far apart.

Hang in there my friend.
When the mood strikes, send out all those messages and don’t feel you have to apologize for being quiet.

This is hard.

No one is judging.

Does this resonate?

My goodness, it does for me. 

I miss my friends, but sometimes the thought of actually talking with someone I don’t see day-to-day feels exhausting.

Here are 3 ways I’ve found connection that don’t involve Zoom or painful “I miss yous”:

• Mail a postcard

• Drop a voice memo

• Color in a compliment and share a pic or snail mail the original

Whether you’re in daily correspondence or struggling to reach out at all, take care of you and know you’re not alone. 

As I said at the very beginning of the pandemic: we can do hard things.