So Maryland is now under a “stay-at-home” order, which doesn’t do much extra except to restrict travel in and out of the state and to make it a crime to linger, loiter, or otherwise hang outside of your house in groups larger than ten, closer than six feet. You can still go get food, and you can still walk around outside. You can be arrested and fined for breaking these rules, and you have to be quarantined when you come into Maryland (and you are urged not to leave).

KWeeks and I have been walking.

We have been walking around the neighborhood, talking about how surreal it all feels, except it’s not actually surreal it’s just a normal day except that we have this other information about this terrible virus, and KWeeks is not working on a Monday and we can have drinks in the middle of the day when it’s not the weekend.

KWeeks and I have been walking.

We have been stopping a lot to look at what’s coming up from the ground and to pick up various pieces of interesting wood. I am supposed to be writing a book about foraging, due for publication in 2021, but this feels uncertain, much like every day that we wake up, but it also feels right to look for ways to be sustained and nourished by the earth anyway right now, and did you know that most of the weeds in your yard are not only edible but are also delicious?

KWeeks and I have been walking.

We have been discussing that there’s no guidance in a “stay-at-home” order for how to deal with children of divorce, especially those with joint custody of their parents, and what’s best, safest, and most supportive for child(ren) and parents alike. Is returning a child to the other parent “necessary” travel? Is it safe? Wise?

KWeeks and I have been walking.

We have noticed that young children from families all across the neighborhood are not really observing social distancing, and then I have been noticing what a judgemental fuck I can be when I look at groups of people who are close together but I am pretty sure they are not living in the same house, which is the only acceptable time that you should be closer than six feet, but then I look at those children, laughing and happy and really only see them as the carriers of disease that they are.

KWeeks and I have been walking.

I don’t know how much longer we can exist in this state of trembling attention.