I’m eating a lot of cookies these days, and that’s okay. They are good for the soul.
It is essential that we follow the rules that will keep ourselves and our communities alive: stay home, wash hands, practice extreme social distancing. We have been flooded with new rules and new worries — our emotional labor is going through the roof. And we must do it, of course. With very few tools to treat COVID-19, preventing the virus from spreading is where our power lies right now. But it is exhausting.
And that is why, in these trying times, give yourself permission to the break all of the other rules that govern our lives. Bake more cookies. Make more noise. Run in the house. Eat pie for breakfast. Stay up late. Sleep in late. Watch too much television. Play too many video games. Whatever makes you feel good, whatever relieves a little bit of stress, do it. Our normal lives have too many rules, and if we have any hope of following the ones that will protect us from COVID-19 in the next year, we must be allowed to let the rest of the rules fall away. Do whatever you want, as long as you do it from home.
