Introduction - Read this first

In January, 2020, a man in his 30's was the first in the U.S. to be diagnosed with COVID-19, a novel coronavirus related to SARS and MERS. The man had traveled to Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began, and returned home to Washington State, where I live. At the end of February, the first death was reported in Kirkland, Washington. A nursing home in that city became the center of an outbreak where two-thirds of the residents and dozens of staff members tested positive; 40 deaths became linked to the facility. But the virus did not stop with our state or our country.

In March, as the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, I realized I was living through what would become a significant point on historic timelines. I began to write about the ways the coronavirus was changing the lives of everyone around me. 

The first stay-at-home orders from local officials kept us from work, school, and most of our daily routines. Those of us stuck at home stocked up on basic food and supplies. We hunkered down in our homes as if waiting for a storm to blow over. We looked for things to occupy our minds. We cleaned our closets and complained that this virus was wasting our precious time. 

Many months later, we are finding other ways to engage with each other and our environments. And as our work and home lives change, we discover how our attention shifts. Maybe we are more introspective and maybe we are becoming more aware of social and cultural issues than ever before. In fact, maybe this is Time NOT Wasted.

What did we know when? And how did we react? Let me take you back in time with some of my earliest journal entries as the coronavirus events unfolded. I invite you to share your own memories and reflections along the way.

Notes: Click on the menu (hamburger button) in the upper left corner to see my profile and Follow me! The first post from my journal is dated March 10, 2020. Posting dates reflect when I wrote the first draft of my journal entry. Each entry is revised and excerpted for posting to this blog.