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• 2021-02-01

  Covid-19 in One Word VI: Exhausting

  This word comes from a peer, an over-worker overthinker, someone who lost much in the pandemic. Exhausting: extremely tiring Too much of anything is tiring. Too much of a bad thing is exhausting. It’s like never being able to shut your eyes and take a rest. There is no break from living in a pandemic. Leave the house for a break? Mask. Relax with friends? Social distance. Go out for a fun time? Entertainment closed. We are not living in a pandemic; we are living the pandemic. This means there are no breaks. There are no pauses. There are no escapes. Even when you get tired of living this way, you still have to do it. That makes things exhausting almost daily for some people. So where can people go for relief? When it all gets too much, how do you find rest? This is something many people have had to find the answer to during this time of isolation. Without a determined end in sight, it is crucial that people learn how to live in a world permanently changed. For some, this has taken a mental form in meditation, yoga, writing, art expression. For others, physical outlets such as running, lifting, creative ways to stay active, new sports, and more have helped give breaks from a crazy world. Most have tried many new hobbies with various successes and failures. On the other hand, for some, this has been the break. Without corporate ties and office hostages, people are finding themselves more relaxed now than they have been for years. Being home has opened families to more time together and opportunities to grow closer. Still, even these people, at times, find this new life exhausting. In all cases, too much of this pandemic is exhausting.