Blessings: How a Two-Time Cancer Survivor Copes During COVID-19

I, for one, am taking social distancing seriously. My husband and I haven’t had sex since the quarantine began. We’ve only hugged each other three times. A two-time cancer survivor, I’m afraid I’ll catch COVID-19. I’ve been working at home, but he’s been going in, and I think he’s afraid he’ll spread the disease. Not that he has it. We’re quite a pair. We always stand six feet apart. This pandemic is hard on me because I have no frame of reference for it. All I know is that danger is all around me. My mother taught me about danger when I was two and a half. We lived along the Cuyahoga River, and she’d warned not to walk down by the murky water because “bums are down there, and they’ll touch your privates.” Well, those words were enough to keep me away from lecherous bums and from accidentally drowning in the Cuyahoga.   My Catholic faith taught me about life and death, with the Bible verse “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” Psalm 23:4. Yes, with the coronavirus, we are living in the valley of the shadow of death. It is with these two tools that I am navigating COVID-19. I guess these do make up some sort of frame of reference. So how do I keep my head during this life and death nightmare? I rely on the things that transcend danger and the valley of death. Below is a list of some of those timeless blessings, the things that make me ...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Personal Trauma Cancer Survivor coronavirus COVID-19 Rape Sexual Assault social distancing Source Type: blogs