adaptation in the time of corona virus

The only thing constant is change, we are told. And in the time of corona virus, that is certainly true.
We are sheltering in place, working from home, or if we go out it is with gloves and  masks on. We learn new ditties to hum while we are washing out hands.  Like "not touching something with a 10 foot pole," we say hello to anyone from 6 feet away. We know the terms "social distancing", "self isolating" , "flatten the curve", and "ventilators".  We avoid gatherings of 10 or more, and connect in the virtual world of Zoom.

Some people are afraid of change, resistant to it, and feel their world is falling apart. They mistake personal physical isolation for relational isolation. But the relationships can continue and must keep up, just adjusted for a change of method. We can and should still continue to maintain those friendships across the miles and the digital divide by email, phone call, text, other forms of social media. Just because we can't physically be together doesn't mean we have to wall ourselves apart.

And in the midst of dealing with communication in new and different ways we can discover new things in the world. Since the Toastmaster world has turned to digital to maintain relationships we have learned about not just how we can maintain our clubs, but also new connections and new possibilities for enhancing our communications. We can share visually and audibly with people hundreds and thousands of miles away. In recent meetings and contests I have been a part of we have connected with folks across the country and around the world , South Korea and India to name a couple examples.

I am doing a contest in a couple weeks where I have recruited people who might have previously had to consider travel to come to the contest site, but now only have to turn on their computer from home to be a part. Recruiting help is easier. And we can involve other districts in the judging and add to the diversity of evaluations. We had as a club a member who came down with the virus and would have not been able to join us for a meeting if not for our new Zoom set up.

People have experimented with virtual backgrounds, presentations without having to lug a laptop and projector to meetings, and even write "notes" (in chat) of evaluation without worrying about legibility (mine especialy).
I guess what I am driving at is rather than focusing on what we don't have, on the complications.
We should focus on treasuring what we have, and what opportunities for growth that are there.
There are so many things we still can do, and places we can go. Today for me it was a "two-bunny walk"...more about that later.