Quarantine was a natural boundary.  No one comes in and no one goes out.  Boring but predictable.  Things are opening up some places but with a new restriction or boundary.  You have to wear a mask.  NOT going well with that one.  Someone chided me that it is just a piece of fabric.  Yes, a piece of fabric over my face just like my abuser would do to me, helped muffle screams.  I put on a mask and my anxiety shoots through the roof.  Try to take the mask off and people accusing me of attempted murder or threaten my family by saying if I don’t ware a mask they will die.  Awesome, just like my abuser.  Horrifying to realize my abuser is dead and he was replicated to millions.  Ugh and double Ugh.  So what boundaries can I set?  Well, I am hiding on Facebook people that bully me about wearing a mask.  I hide post and walk away from all discussions about mask.  I posted how I feel twice and got lectured both times, more people to hide or delete.  Also learned a cool trick, if someone answers cruelly on my comments or post, I delete my comment and theirs goes away too.  I got a little of my power back.  I also stepped back away from Facebook, visiting less often.  Keeping myself busy with other things to do.

Pondering over this situation I remember a quote from Viktor Frankl author and survivor of the Concentration camps:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

I can choose kindness when people are cruel.  I can choose inner peace when the outside world is chaotic.  I can choose crocheting over reading ridiculous opinions in the news.  I can choose to do my own homework on an issue instead of believing talking heads/celebrities/politicians with their own agendas.  I can believe faith in Christ, over fear of people gone loopy.    I can choose……you read that correctly I can choose my attitude, my use of time and most importantly I choose to stay home so I don’t need to wear a mask.  Yup, I can choose.

One of my finished projects.