"If you want stability, practice with instability."

 I felt really great this morning, remembering something a physical therapist told me (when I was getting treated for Achilles tendinitis, from the hard floors when I worked at Goodwill):

"If you want stability, practice with instability."

That's like the phrase that came to me at Lake Superior this winter:

"It's all right to be uncomfortable."

When I experience discomfort, if I think, "I'm doing it wrong, I must fix myself", that just makes me frantic, which is not helpful.
It has always worked better for me to relax into the discomfort and get my bearings in, rather than struggling against the unstable feelings. 

Then I can do something about it, if something needs doing.

I've been kind of hard on myself these seven Stay-at-Home weeks, feeling like I should be creating something momentous, such as making a movie or re-outfitting all the girlettes.

INTERRUPTION... [triggered by mention of girlettes]

to show off the book I just ordered! Dolls, by Bettima Ehrlich:

We're All Astronauts 

But you know, this isn't "free time", like a vacation, when everything keeps going and you take a break.
It's a time of great instability, when everything doesn't keep going.
That's worth sitting down with and paying attention to!

Putting pressure on myself to treat it like a working vacation is ludicrous.

I listened to the TED talk of Chris Hadfield, the personable Canadian astronaut with the great social-media presence, about the difference between fear and danger.
"What I Learned From Going Blind in Space"

When you're in danger, he says---say, you're floating outside your space ship and something gets in your eyes, causing them to stick shut so can't see--fear is not your friend.
Knowledge and practice are.

THIS, I realized, is what bothers me when some Christians quote scripture advising not to be afraid, and to trust in God instead... as if that means DO NOTHING.

I'm with Muhammad, who supposedly said,

"Trust in God, but tie up your camel." 

I love all the "do not worry" bits in the Bible, but it doesn't mean don't be prepared like an astronaut. Hadfield ends his talk with the words, "Fear not". (He says he's a person of faith but doesn't elaborate on what that means.*)

Obviously religion is not necessarily anti-preparedness, but I've been seeing lots of Psalm 91, about how if you have faith, pestilence and plague "will not come near you"--
a statement history has shown to be so blatantly counter-factual, I don't know how anyone could take it literally.

Faith or fear are no reasons not to–– as the Boy Scouts (and Chris Hadfield and Louis Pasteur) say––"Be prepared."
I googled "Christians be prepared" and found a lot of stuff about being prepared for the End Times and Doomsday and stuff. 
That is a kind of interesting spiritual/psychological preparedness, 
but it's not exactly what I'm wanting, personally.

Penny Cooper says, Eat sardines!

What I want is to be logically prepared about the dangers of going back to work at the thrift store.
Covid hasn't even peaked in Minnesota--the social distancing has been successful here in pushing it outward--to sometime in the summer.

I've been feeling less afraid as time goes on--and I see a lot of people starting to relax. 
Dropping the anxiety is good... except not if it means dropping a healthy respect for the danger!

So...
To begin with, since a person's immune system is key to how they respond to the corona, I asked Mz to buy me some  immune booster supplements from her workplace. 

She brought me vitamins + minerals, and a couple tincture blends (elderberry, shiitake mushrooms).

These aren't magic bullets. I believe they do something, but I've also been impressed by research showing that placebos help activate your body's healing and defense systems--even if you know they're placebos.
And, capsules work better than pills.
Ha!
One of the bottles is capsules of zinc!
They look like rocket ships, so you know they've got boost... 😄

Maybe I will do some drawings of things to help me.

Then, I am trying to eat better--more antioxidants (bright foods).
Mz said: EAT SARDINES for physical health!
And Art Sparker said EAT SARDINES for mental health!
And Michael always says EAT SARDINES... they're good!

Also, I need some more masks. I made myself two, but I want to be able to change them often, so I'll make some more even though I only have boring fabric.
I know my coworkers (not to mention customers). A lot of them don't get vaccinations, they're not going to wear masks.

(In normal times, we should all wear mask because we handle such filthy and dusty donations. But no one takes precautions at this workplace, and people are often injured.)

Finally, I have asked if Penny Cooper can come back from home to help me. She is the crossing guard, you know, and there is no other like her. Penny immediately ran to get her bag and start packing it with rubber bands and pennies.

She will be happy to help me remember to take my drops and capsules.
 _____________________________

* Chris Hadfield on faith (via Huff Post):

"If you start talking in depth about your own [faith], you are excluding other people who have different faiths that give them strength. There’s no point in that."

And, in an NPR interview in 2013:

"I think what everyone would find . . . if they could see the whole world every 90 minutes and look down on the places where we do things right, and look down where we're doing stupid, brutal things to each other and the inevitable patience of the world that houses us — I think everybody would be reinforced in their faith, and maybe readdress the real true tenets of what's good and what gives them strength."