Fragility of Interconnected Mortality, Trust and Love

I’m sure some travel bloggers look at their own photos and fun posts on where they’ve been, as a string of postcard dreams and memories during the coronavirus-19 pandemic restrictions on daily life.

Bird peeps out shyily out from house. George Reif Bird Sanctuary Park. Delta, BC 2019. Photo by J.Chong

Longing To Be Carefree Again
Will we be able to travel again? Carefree and curious, solo or with others immediately beside us, without fear of the coronavirus-19?  I’m worried we are in the long run and at times in the dark, onto recovery into a global twilight.  We want to believe we can return back to life to how it was –before coronavirus-19.

Now,  globally,  national economies are paralyzed and ricocheting with fear, tourists have fled back home and companies big and small are battered, with many people losing jobs.

Playful exploration and learning about our world with less worries. Vancouver BC 2017. Photo by J.Chong

Pandemic Challenges at Every Level:  Global to Personal
This pandemic is challenging us at every single level, every facet of life in ways many of us have never experienced. Exception might be those who actually lived through war in their own country or another earlier pandemic. We are challenged at global, national, local and at personal levels — in our strength, social support systems, economy and community, as well as for our own personal health, safety and trust in others.

Signs like this everywhere in workplace. Feb. 2020 Alberta.

Challenging Our Trust
We trust in those we know and love or like. We also approach friendly strangers who just provide us services in our daily lives. All these human connections build an intricate web of necessary social cohesion and interdependency to help one another survive.

Root infrastructure laid bare in an old, shattered, yet still standing Douglas fir tree. Stanley Park, Vancouver BC 2019. Photo by J.Chong

Now, we have to wipe the elevator button because maybe the neighbours may unknowingly have the virus. We try not to touch the escalator rail in public building or need find a place quickly to wash hands. We’re not sure if we can trust even those who pass by close.

Overlooking Bow River. Sign at popular viewing area for locals. Calgary AB 2020. Photo by J.Chong

Store sign. Calgary AB 2020.

Backlit Interconnected Web of Human Dependent Threads
More than ever, this pandemic has backlit the dense, fragile interconnected spider web of human connections in our work, play, study, community, family

Peach coloured flower buds. Vancouver BC 2017. Photo by J.Chong

and at home. We do things with or for one another or we pass by others. Our presence touches and leaves a trace that we never thought of. My mortality, my actions can be directly impacted to your life and your life directly affecting  even a perfect stranger –one can carry unknowingly a  deadly virus.

Or we may inspire, touch the imagination, hope or stoke the energy of an unknown stranger by what we do good  in our actions.

Spring peach blossom beauties in the shade. Vancouver BC 2019. Photo by J.Chong

I’d like to think our communities are like gardens with flowers, edible plants, weeds and some difficult thistle plants, where the garden grows at different rates with the same sun, rain and wind. Alas, some perish while the sturdy hang on abit longer.

Chery blossoms and birdhouse. George Reif Bird Sanctuary Park. Delta, BC 2019. Photo by J.Chong

Hopefully, the garden will always replenish and each plant will face one another, together with the sun and rain.  Now,  go enjoy the fragility of life at present and presence of one another.

Spring beauty. Vancouver BC 2019. Photo by J.Chong

Brilliant cherry blossoms. Seattle, WA 2019. Photo by J.Chong

Nature’s beauty becomes solace during such difficult times. Cherry blossoms. Kitslano Beach, Vancouver BC 2020. Photo by J.Chong