Two Years Later — Covid Memories

I have an annual calendar reminder … “COVID START ANNIVERSARY.” March 13, 2020 was the day that American began to shut down.

For some, this anniveseray was the beginning of the end. Government forced shutdowns were already happening for “non-essential” businesses. I owned a handful of such businesses, and within weeks most of them would never operate again. I lost so much in the pandemic, but of course, I am reminded even with a recent Covid funeral my wife and I attended, that some truly lost everything. Two years ago, the beginning of the end came in many forms: death, disease, and for most despair. For me, it was the end of dreams I had been working on for over a decade and an identity loss in what I valued most.

In that fateful first year, I had a nationwide theatrical film release canceled, our annual film festival postponed, my restaurant doors shut forever, and three theatre projectors go dark while some may never show a film again. On this anniversary, I read my past writings on the subject of the pandemic with Brave New World Full of Fear and In One Month — Everything Changed. Those articles I had written in the terror of that unknown moment of the world crumbling all around us. That first year the world suffered a lot of loss. But slowly I began Waking up from a 9 Month Nightmare.

The second year, for me, began a lot of rebirth and promise. It was a season of renewal and getting back to the things that mattered most in life. I rediscovered who I was as a person, allowed my heart to love again, and found my wife in the pews of my new home and church. There was so many ashes, and the final embers began to go out from my past empire of dirt. There were new hardships and disappointments as I tried to establish a new home. Many of these difficulties and uncertainties still remain today. Yet, I have the Lord, my new bride, and my yearning to express the world and my heart with art again.