Like much of the world, I have been following the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.  Two months ago, I had never heard of it; now it dominates my news-feed on my phone, probably because I read every story I see.

China is a long way away from where I live.  The countries that have had the highest cases are a long way away.  Even the US cases are safely (I hope) contained through quarantine with most of those cases coming from the cruise ship.  I can walk out the door without feeling worried.  I can go to the grocery store like I did this morning without seeing anyone wearing a mask.  I didn’t think twice about going to the store for my important excursion; I needed a coconut milk latte from the Starbucks inside the grocery store before sitting down to write this blog.  Yes, I really did “need” it.  I just took a sip.  It was worth the trip.

Of course, my coffee excursion would never have happened if I were living in Wuhan, China.  Every outing would have to be carefully considered as to risk vs importance.  If deemed an essential outing, a protective mask would be worn at all times while outside.  We in the US have no idea whether we will get to that point.

I have asked myself as I would guess many other US residents have as well…how should we all react?  How should we prepare, or should we prepare at all?  My nurse friend told me that the best protection is to bolster our immune system (Thanks, I’m trying!).

There is an overprotective mom part of me that wants to go buy masks and then send them to all my adult kids.  My news-feed says we could stock up on some non-perishable food and water.  I haven’t yet but I have thought about it.  Along with my coffee this morning, I did pick up some bleach and extra sanitizing wipes; not enough to make my husband raise his eyebrows at me but enough to make me feel like I did something proactive.

Besides the possibility of getting sick if this spreads through the US, there is the possible impact to our business.  Some of the supplies we use for production come from China.  So far, the supply pipeline does not seem to be affected but it’s also still early in this health situation.  I wonder how our business would survive if supplies were diminished.  I have to stop my mind when it wants to wander down that path.  We are a long way from a global pandemic and if we were there, staying healthy would be a higher priority anyway.

I won’t call it a pandemic yet because WHO is not calling it that and yet it does seem to be heading that way with a couple of new cases this past week in CA that may have been passed through the community.  I am not losing sleep over this but I admit I am nervous.  I want my family and my friends to be safe.

Life on earth.  There are a lot of ups and downs and there are a lot of uncertainties.  As my husband and I often say about our lives and business…never a dull moment…just gives us more reason to pray.