Coronavirus is the new normal. It’s time to accept that

It’s been five weeks — five short weeks — since our collective existence came to a screeching halt.

Life as we knew it as recently as early March has been snuffed out and replaced by a new normal that was previously unfathomable.

While I cannot minimize the extent of the personal, physical and financial trauma that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on the globe, I’m still struck by how quickly we’ve all adapted.

Once bizarre behaviors, like wearing face masks in public, staying six feet apart while waiting in line and spending happy hours with friends on Zoom, are now barely worth noticing.

Terms such as “social distancing,” “infection tracking,” “viral load” and “isolation in place” have crept into our psyche and pepper our daily speech.

In fact, we cringe when we see pictures of ticker tape parades and crowded sporting arenas, wondering if those jam-packed scenarios are a thing of the past.

We certainly didn’t arrive at this state of acceptance by choice. Most of us initially responded by whining and protesting: “What about my upcoming vacation?” “I have hip surgery planned.”

But we quickly realized the severity of the new coronavirus outbreak. We were faced with the sobering reality that we were going to have to stay indoors and cancel everything — not just for the weekend but maybe for months.

That’s when panic set in. We flocked to the stores in droves, filling our pantries and freezers with food and, head-scratchingly, hoarding toilet paper.

Even that phase gradually ended and we jointly hunkered down for the long haul. We admitted to ourselves that yes, there was a worldwide pandemic and we had to self-quarantine en masse.

We stopped railing against the unfairness of the unseen enemy, instead making the best of a challenging turn of events.

We’ve worked remotely, met quotas and conducted business while bouncing a baby on one knee and tending to a fussy toddler.

We’ve sewn face masks, served food to unemployed workers, connected with fellow congregants for virtual church services and created online curricula for our students learning from home.

We’ve FaceTimed family and friends, offering support and staying connected. We’ve baked our own bread, taken online yoga classes, jogged on one-way trails and read books that were gathering dust on our shelves.

I’m reminded of the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — and realize we’ve experienced them as a community in various stages along the coronavirus path.

We were angry about the inconveniences caused by coronavirus, complained the illness was blown out of proportion, agreed to keep our distance if we could only go outside, and felt depressed and powerless at the scope of the problem.

Then we accepted this as our new normal and got back to living our lives.

Yes, those lives are vastly different, completely unrecognizable in certain settings.

Still, these are the cards we currently have in our hand. And accepting them makes us happier, minimizes stress and saves energy for the more important battles we have to face.