I keep making plans for when this will all be over. But then I remember I don’t know when that is. And what if it’s never over? And what if I have to bury someone I love? Or they have to bury me?

Then Nick will say, “You have to remember, this was always going to happen and it’s going to be ok.”

And for a moment, I feel ok.

Like many people out there, I’m a sucker for a good apocalypse movie. I feel ok and suddenly every scenario from every apocalypse movie starts replaying in my mind and I wonder if this is just the beginning of the end.

But then I think about the Spanish Flu. It lasted 2 years and infected about a quarter of the Earth’s population. Something like 50 million people died. And the world didn’t end. We made it through two World Wars and countless other catastrophes and disasters and we’re all still here.

The human species should have been killed off by now. Somehow, we keep on.

Here is a song I wrote in 2017. It’s not the greatest recording but go take a listen and read the lyrics. I’m Still Here

It’s about surviving all the things life throws at you. After my mom died of cancer in 2016, I became slightly obsessed with Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild and the movie based on it. There’s a point in the movie when Reese Witherspoon, who is playing Cheryl, realizes that she’s stayed on this difficult trek she is on longer than a more experienced backpacker who has left the trail. She says, “I’m still here.” And that line hit me like a fucking ton of bricks. It stayed with me. I watched the scene over and over. And I even wrote a song with that line.

I’m still here. We’re still here. The human race has survived the hurricane of time. Somehow. It gives me hope. I don’t know when this will end. I don’t know if I’ll have to bury a loved one. Or if I’ll be the one laid in the ground. But I do know IT WILL END.

It will end and life will continue. And humanity will survive. We’re still here. We’re still breathing. The sea came, as if to kill us but we WILL survive.

That is my hope and peace right now. We’ve been here before. We made it before. We’ll do it again. Will I still be scared? You better believe it. Will I keep ugly crying daily? I can’t imagine stopping now.

But I have a smithereen of hope. I have a capful of peace. I know we will survive. I dare not make plans for the future only because I want to keep my mind on this bit of hope and peace I’ve found. And I won’t make plans for the end because I know it isn’t coming.