Misfit Manor Diary-practicing gratitude when we need it most.

That’s right…I cooked a full blown Thanksgiving dinner tonite…and I am not a fan of the traditional celebration of Thanksgiving. Late last week my husband went to the store to get something for me to make for dinner…burgers is what he wanted. He called me from the store…”honey there is no meat…can you believe it…no meat…the only thing they have is turkey”…I said well bring home a turkey then.

The corona virus epidemic is an unprecedented experience for most people….let’s face it…it doesn’t even feel real. We don’t know how to process it…we are facing a ridiculous level of uncertainty…something that none of us like.

While so much of this situation is completely out of our hands…and that is frustrating…we can still choose how we respond to it.

Believe me…I’m not diminishing the hardship of this situation. Lives are being lost. Jobs are being lost. My husband and I are both self employed. Our businesses have been decimated in a matter of days and we won’t be getting any unemployment or aid as self employed folks. We will have to figure it out on our own. Stress has been high. Bret has run home several times from the office in the last 2 weeks because I wasn’t sure if I was having a panic attack or a heart attack as I dealt with literally the cancellation of the entire season for our vacation rentals.

We have to get used to a new paradigm….we have to change our expectations and think of new ideas to make it all work going forward. But frankly…its not the first time…and we will figure it out.

Lucky for us…there are a lot of distractions to keep us busy here at the Manor. First and foremost we need to focus on the needs of all these little creatures. I ordered a huge order from Chewy.com to make sure we were stocked up on dog and cat food of our Misfits (I’m sure the UPS guy was cursing me hauling those boxes to our porch). Solstice worked hard to make it a much bigger chore than necessary to get everything unpacked and put away.

Trudy, our blind and deaf dachshund keeps us on our toes every minute…she could absolutely care less what is going on in the world around her. She wants attention from us…no matter what we have going on.
The rest of our crew is just running around playing and causing mischief like nothing is wrong in the world at all….I don’t think they know it…but they are an amazing stabilizing force for us.

I am getting busy painting…I picked up some new commission work that I am super excited about…one for a lady I have been friends with since the 2nd grade! I can’t wait to paint her cats. I am also keeping busy making masks from my hoards of fabric for folks who are forced to do public facing jobs right now but have no protection from being exposed to the virus. I am not charging for my masks…if you need one let me know. Miss Solstice is making my mask making task much harder than it needs to be…she is fascinated with the sewing machine.

So we took a break and made a full blown thanksgiving meal today. We wanted to make a huge symbolic effort to be grateful for all the blessings we still have. We put on some of our favorite music; Randy Travis, Willie Nelson, The Judds…and we danced around our kitchen with Rosie sandwiched between us. For at least a little while we made things feel normal again.

We aren’t numb to everything that is going on…but today we choose to be grateful for what we have…and what we have is enough. We always have the space to choose to respond to shitty situations with an attitude that will serve us well rather than drag us down. That doesn’t mean we don’t have little melt downs here and there…but it does mean we pick ourselves up, put our heads down and get busy with the business of living our best life…regardless.

I hope everyone who reads this is hanging in there. I hope you can find things to be grateful for right now, spread some joy and find even the smallest ways to be part of the solution to this terrible pandemic.

Hang in there…hug your fur babies…they take all their cues from us!

Nancy & The Misfits