Day 282-290: Back to Basics

You may have noticed a lack of posts recently, more info to follow in later posts, but the short story is I have found meaningful ways to help protect my community and it is leading to many 10- 12- or 14+ hours a day of just trying to help people help other people.

So let's get back to basics today:

1. If you can stay home, please choose to stay home.

2. If you must be in a place (indoor or outdoor) with people outside your HOME bubble:

   1. Choose to wear a face covering over your nose and mouth at all times.

   2. Choose to physically distance beyond the required six feet. Six feet is a minimum.

   3. Choose to thoroughly disinfect and practice hygiene for yourself and your belongings.

3. If you are still reading you know that it's not a choice. It never can be viewed as a choice, but here we are because many have chosen that these rules do not apply to them, their circumstance, their family.

I invite everyone to consider your choice, because every decision you make impacts those in your local, national, and global community. Every choice of "just this once" or "well, we can risk it" will inevitably lead to challenges for your government's leadership, your own neighborhood, and eventually you, too.

I know I am "ready for this all to be over."

But it isn't.

Not yet.

So today, and every day, I will continue to choose to stay home, though I miss my friends terribly. I choose to wear a mask with a filter, fitted correctly to protect me and you when I go for a walk or run, though it adds a little extra challenge tomy exercise. I choose to respect the curfew in my state though I will be up hours later. I choose to be honest with family, friends, and other who ask where I have been and who I was with and when. I choose to let you make your best decision based on my best decision even though it is hard to remember everything. I choose to follow the strict guidelines, even when the word "strict" truly just means safe. I choose supporting local businesses virtually or in other contact-less ways even though money is tight. I choose to keep believing that people are good, even when the news is so bad.

I choose us.

Because in the end, let's prove that this isn't a choice. We are one globe, united to stand for hope, truth, and innovation.

The choice, my friends, is yours,

Prepare, don't panic,

-Allison