COVID part 2 – toilet paper

This is a post that certainly needs a photo of grocery store shelves completely devoid of toilet paper. Alas, I lacked the foresight to take a picture of this phenomenon the last time I was at the grocery store.
Nonetheless, I’m sure as you read through this post, you will have sufficient experience or imagination to picture in your mind the very things I am going to describe.

If your response to the following content is a knowing nod, or an outburst of laughter, it is likely that you are living through the oddities of the pandemic of 2020.

• You go to the grocery store to pick up a few basic items, and find that there is no toilet paper on the shelves. A few other staples you might find missing: sliced bread, non-perishable foods such as canned beans, instant noodles, Lysol wipes, common disinfectant products, paper towel, peanut butter, flour, sugar, and 2% milk.
  Note: Do not be alarmed! At this point in time, bread and peanut butter and 2% milk can easily be located in most grocery stores. There is no need for you to frantically stalk up on three years’ worth of any of these products. 
• You have a staff meeting at work in which everyone is comfortably seated two metres apart. You chalk it up to the recent trend of enlarged personal bubbles.
• You find yourself cleaning the parts of your house that would otherwise have been neglected for the next two years.
• You move ALL the books off the bookshelves, wipe each shelf, and reorganize your books either by author alphabetically, genre, or — if you’re feeling adventurous — colour coding!
• Your husband recently built an entire storage shelf unit in your garage, just to pass the time!
• You find yourself going to the grocery store every second day just to see if they’ve restocked toilet paper yet.
• You’re having Skype or Facebook calls with friends you haven’t spoken to in weeks, months, maybe even years — just to shoot the breeze and get someone else’s perspective on COVID-19.
• You bake bread, instead of buying it, because you have time!
• Despite the fact that you never thought you would homeschool your children, you find yourself in the throes (yes, for some it may seem like torture) of decoding curriculum and ordering homeschool resources!
• You try making homemade donuts for the first time ever.
• You feel like a bit of a rebel inviting a small group of friends over for board games and — wait for it — shared snacks!
• You see your federal leader routinely addressing the country every morning at 11:30, showing up on every major news channel.
• You’re watching the case count for COVID-19 in your area.
• You are hyper-aware of every sniff, sneeze, cough, temperature fluctuation, and ache in your body.
• Your daily hand-washing average is about 150, and climbing.
• Some of you have super dry skin for the first time in your life from constant washing.
• Spring cabin fever is more intense than ever before!
• All of your hobbies that have been metaphorically collecting dust are starting to make their way off the shelves of your life and find a place in your new routines.
• You start writing letters by hand. Washing before you write, of course.
• You are disinfecting your phone regularly.
• A day at a shopping mall feels like a distant memory.
• …
• Has anyone found toilet paper yet?

I’m sure this list is by no means exhaustive; but for those of us living in these unusual times, hopefully we are choosing to laugh at these oddities instead of cry. Hopefully we are pulling those dusty hobbies off the shelf and exercising creativity. Hopefully we are taking time to connect with people — whether that be the people who live in our homes with us, or those who are far away.
It is also my hope that we are respecting the new restrictions in place, knowing that it is honourable to submit to the government authorities over us. Hopefully we are praying daily for the revival of the church in North America. Hopefully we are looking with joyful anticipation to the One who saw all of this coming, and who is providentially allowing it to unfold.

And hopefully you haven’t run out of toilet paper.