Our World, Our Families, Our Safety, Our Sense of Place, Connection, Our Loved Ones, Our Hearts.  

Forever altered by a virus that came like a Tsunami, then Hurricanes, then Sweeping Storms, and finally like difficult weather.

Two years, our lives changed, many lost to death, so much suffering. so, push on, let it go, get to normal, the past is done, move on. 

Can we?  Are we well oiled machines globe over, ready to just put it behind us?  We buried so many without goodbyes, we detached from family for safety, most have yet to come close to lives they knew. Gatherings of beloveds now far more difficult to make habit again.

 Faces at the table gone without normal grieving, trauma is etched on healthcare workers hearts and minds, trauma on faces of children, broken families, global suffering, yet the economic rally cry screams us back to work, back to status of Human Resources, before we’ve come back to Human Healing. 

What has changed for you, your day to day routine, as the pandemic pushed our boundaries and capacity for change in behaviors?    

A few of my routines and how they changed, probably forever.. 

1.  I often buy my groceries on line, for delivery.
2. I’m comfortable with virtual doctor visits.
3.  If I’m im going in to a restaurant, if it more than 50% capacity, I leave for another spot. 
4. Im comfortable to a fault at home.  I’m lonely, but still, most of the time, prefer home.
5. I have two new dogs, both therapy trained Yorkies.  First was for my mom, when she was alive here with me.  Second was an obsession, had to have him.  I talk to my animals, a lot.  Like they understand my long sentences of commands! 
6. I keep business callers on the line far longer than necessary.  Chat I’m appreciative of, many callers also seem to also want yo chat. 
7. I’m depressed and in stress, also  in therapy, I cannot seem to reconnect well to my loved ones and other family.  I just find it to seem overwhelming. 
8. I have a Netflix or Prime series going all the time, learned to live these streaming services.

What’s changed for you? What is different in your routine? Do you have a nagging concern about a new super strain variant? Are you happy to get back to a normal, if you have.  Work? Family? School?   Will these changes be lifelong? Are you happy about that? 

This petition calls for International Days of Remembrance.  Reflection times, yard signs with faces of those lost, outdoor gatherings to speak the fears, loss, suffering, loneliness, goodbyes without tribute, the thank you’s to the Heroic healthcare front liners now expected to March on, harder, in the face of lost coworkers and mass exodus coworkers. 

I propose without these International Remembrance Days we will see the effects of repressed trauma and grief. We are seeing them now in violence, self harm, terrified elders and those who love them.  

To heal we collectively, world over, must honor what was lost before we are ready to make the world anew, especially making it new for the elites who did quite well with the pandemic.  Remember the underground cities the Uber elite have ready still, for a pandemic they can’t cozy in for, or civil unrest mass scale, or nuclear war.  They are busy snapping management, same old, to control and assure profits far over average disposable people. .  

Profit to Pharma, to those who could tuck safely in at home, economic worries at arms length.  I lost my marriage, years with my grandchildren, time with my children, I lost my mom, brought her home from chaotic nursing home.  She died surrounded by all good I could give her, til she said goodbye, in my arms. 

Healing allows us give ourselves art, music, poetry, meditative and collective remembering on a global scale so we can heal in spite of war and insurrection, soaring costs and interest rates, inhumane work schedules, we need time out in conscious reflection, grief, thankfulness, and humane care for others. 

History in time will write this story.  Make our real voices heard now, as the cement hardens on this chapter of our world.  It won’t be ignored in times to come, books already written, films surely will document  or fictionalize our stories.  What if we write them, dance them, walk them, honor them, before a different generation sets out Covid Years in stone? 

Thank you,  please sign and share, bringing back our full connected humanity and allowing grief space and place, in community, away from glaring screens, may give for fuller healing and lessened fear. 

Christine Deneveu