The push for vaccinated people to get “back to normal” isn’t just about rushing the end of the pandemic.

It’s also a sign of a culture profoundly unaccepting of grief, trauma and the process needed for healing.

CW: COVID trauma (1/x)

Even if the pandemic miraculously ended tomorrow, many people would not feel safe going “back to normal.” Why would we? We’ve seen people dying all around us. Hospitals and morgues filling up. (2/x)

We’ve seen and felt and lived the racialized violence of this pandemic, even as prominent white voices continued to declare that it was not even happening at all.

How many times have they called it over by now? (3/x)

Many of us have family in places that are STILL being ravaged by this disease. The pain and fear of that lives in our bodies, too. Those are our people, our kin. A part of us. (4/x)

COVID is still with us, and probably will be for quite some time. Even after that, the pain of this pandemic will live on in our bodies and our minds.

It will take time for many of us to feel safe. AND THAT’S OK. (5/x)

What’s not OK is trying to rush another person’s healing. Telling a hurt or traumatized person to “just get over it.”

So let me be the one to tell you, if no one else will:

Take all the time you need.

You don’t owe “normal” to anyone. (6/6)

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