When this pandemic is over it will be the “sunshiniest” of days and I will be blasting Johnny Nash’s song over the speaker in my backyard and I will be dancing up a storm with family and friends. Together again!

I am visualizing this happy day as much as possible as I am trying to counteract other more serious and scary thoughts that creep into my psyche on a daily and nightly basis. Yes, these are worrying times. We all have our issues to deal with. Here is one of mine I will share with you.

That stinkin’ COVID-19 image haunts me. I see that pebbly skinned orb with its protruding weirdo clumps of particles everywhere!

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had illustrators create the 3D image with McDonald’s bright colors to grab the public’s attention. It has certainly worked on me, to the point of distraction.

I see COVID-19 when I gaze upon any sphere-shaped item in my home:

• A dog-chewed tennis ball lying under a bush – Look! A moldy green hairy COVID-19!
• Gathered dust bunnies on the floor – Look! A congregation of COVID-19 followers!
• A bowl of Nacho Cheese Doritos – Look! Flaming orange COVID-19 clumps invading my snack time!

The saddest part of my mind’s constant perception of the COVID-19 image in most anything round is that it is lessening my appreciation of activities I have grown to really enjoy during this era of Sheltering in Place.

For instance, I have taken up crafting! The connection to seeing COVID-19 in my crafts will be explained later but first let me give you some background. Never in a million years would I have thought that I could possibly enjoy making a craft project. This is because never have I ever been adept at fashioning items out of stuff like Popsicle sticks, yarn and glue. (Yes, I know there is much more to it than that my Craft-Gifted Friends). But I have never been one to have such talents.

Dare I share that I was pretty much kicked out of Brownies as a child because of my inability to make cute faces out of canned peaches, raisins and maraschino cherries. I recall the Brownie troop leader was a stern mom who wore her shellacked ebony hair in the tightest of buns. She didn’t think I tried hard enough to make a good fruit face in a bowl or design a necklace from drab pasta strewn on twine. And she certainly didn’t take kindly to my expressions of disdain whenever we were instructed to partake yet again in what I deemed lame-o craft time. You see, I was more of a tomboy kinda gal and frequently advocated, to the horror of our troop matron, that we Brownies try more Cub Scout kind of stuff like getting outdoors to build shelters out of twigs, catch bugs in glass jars, start fires by rubbing sticks. I was always given this look that exuded disappointment in the fact I was clearly not Brownie material.

And in the end it was my inability to learn the words of our Brownie Smile Song —“I have something in my pocket and it goes upon my face”— that was the last straw for me. I was shunned by my troop and pretty much dropped out after that. Since then anything dealing with craft projects tends to remind me of those “Bad Brownie” days.

Be that as it may, now with time on my hands during sheltering in place at home for weeks on end, I have discovered that the world of crafting has become more sophisticated and interesting. This I know to be true because I get sucked into the Pinterest vortex on an almost daily basis. The infinite ideas displayed there are simply mesmerizing.

I now understand the wonders of the all-knowing, all-great Glue Gun. I have glued sea glass, driftwood, and pebbles to make artsy projects that give me joy. And most recently I have tackled the big project of making a wine cork ball.

Hours were spent glue gunning and measuring the placement of 280 corks on a Styrofoam ball. Never had I ventured to make a piece of what I deemed as a much needed addition to our home décor. Upon its initial completion I was thrilled at how all the corks stayed in place in a perfectly uniform cork ball. A ball. With protruding things. Some with red purplish stains…That remind me of a certain virus. Bleh!

And so in the end, I am a bit grossed out at this thing that is now perched upon my coffee table — a blazing beacon for other pathogens to perhaps come a knocking? Yuck!

During this home quarantine period, I have also taken up more cooking and baking projects. My son Aleks turned 21 yesterday. Woo Hoo Aleks! Nothing like being stuck at home with the folks for this big rite of passage. Yes lame-o. But we did what we could to make the day as festive as possible for him. He requested an ice cream dessert that looks and tastes like the Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake bars. It is quite yummy, with layers of ice cream and sorbet, a cookie crust make of blonde Oreos and oh yes, the crunchy topping that to me wound up looking like the clumping particles that top the COVID-19 image.

Argh! Will this madness never stop?

Yes, I think so. You see I have come up with a plan. And it just might work. It is similar to a technique I use to deal with drivers that really irritate me while on the road.

Let me explain. I feel it is no longer safe to give someone who has done you wrong the good ole’ middle finger. You simply never know if during these crazy road rage times someone will take that as a sign worthy of running you off the road. Gone are the days of the civil, back and forth middle finger waving that could be used to communicate one’s disdain for another driver’s actions without the worry of some lethal retribution.

So now if a driver is reckless and makes me angry this is what I do: After the offending driver passes me and moves ahead of me, when they get to a certain point in the distance I get their rude little head in the sights of my thumb and pointer finger and then in one swift motion – pinch their little head off and toss it aside. This stress reliever truly works for me.

I have now adapted this visual method of destroying my enemy a.k.a the COVID-19 image and use it to squash the bad imagery popping into my mind. I tell my mind to stop, squish and clear.

The last couple of times I have passed by our coffee table that now displays our cool corked orb, I was actually able to mindfully stop myself from bringing out its evil twin that lurks in the back of my mind. Stop, squish and clear!

I can only hope that it stays back there and is soon replaced with a different spherical image that is shown on the news every day… Maybe our earth. Healed from this illness. At peace. A place of wonder to be explored and enjoyed again with friends and family together. That is the image I am actively hoping for.

Cue music…

Johnny Nash