A Covering
A covering: A marine layer settles into the hills in early morning Yucaipa from Sunset Avenue.
About 8:30 this morning, the marine layer that came in from the Southern California coast last night began to evaporate. When it settles in this valley between Redlands and Yucaipa, as it usually does on June mornings, it is cool and calm. This is one of our demarcation lines in the season; we now know that the heat of summer is only weeks away. And we prepare.
Under this covering, this marine layer, early in the morning, the moisture is 83%, at least it is today, here. This white umbrella, not quite a fog, not a cloud, not haze, huddles over us. For a few hours until the sun moves across the sky burning it off, I sit in the cool air, enjoying a cup of coffee while the baby birds, mockingbirds I think, serenade me. I think about getting ready for the heat to come.
Mulch around the trees and bushes will help retain the moisture for them on the hotter days and so they will require less watering. Any last minute repairs to the house outside will be set in order. We will make sure air conditioners are in order. If one is so inclined, and I am not, windows could be washed. Swimsuits are, or were, dug out of the back of drawers or bought. The last of the lemons and limes and oranges will be squeezed, juiced, and frozen for lemonades to be poured over ice or set aside to add that zing to guacamole. Flip-flops are washed and set out for days when shoes just don’t make sense. Heavier pieces of clothing and anything with a long sleeve is moved the to back of the closet. We know summer is near. We prepare for it because we know this will help us survive it. We have learned to do this because those who don’t struggle and a few are taken from us by the heat.
And I wonder at the people who don’t believe in such things, who in the false name of freedom, flout the pleas of medical professionals and journalists to prepare, to take precautions as this virus rages on.
I read in the Washington Post yesterday that this virus may not go away, that we may have to learn to live with it as we do with what were virus pandemics from the past that still can flare up today: think measles, mumps, polio, influenza, HIV, and even what we speak of as merely the common cold. We may have to learn to live with this, to get through the brunt of Covid-19 and mourn the dying and dead for the next few years and hope for a vaccine, a miracle, or better skills and tools to keep it at bay.
And over the next few years, we will have to find our way in the world, adjust meal planning to what is available, find ways to maintain human contact with loved ones and to make new friends in ways we could not have imagined as children or teens. We will learn new ways to communicate and connect with those who live life deeply, generously. And this too requires preparation. Learning things anew takes time. What was normal has dissolved and we are forming a new way of living. We should prepare, I should, and think outside this box. It’s a matter of finding a covering to shelter under.
So in this June, I will prepare and set about the task of learning to live in new ways. My sister would encourage me to make a list, and perhaps I should. But for now, in this moment, I’ll sit here in the cool air with my coffee and dream about what I should learn next, about adventure I should prepare for next, about what unknown I can face next.