Remember being very young and thinking there might be a monster hiding in your closet at night? Scary stuff to a little one. When my son was a toddler and started worrying about the night monster, I would use a can of room spray and spray it up the stairs to his room. I told him it was monster repellent.

Now the monster in the closet is six oversized, red, blinking letters. I swipe the doors open and aha! There it is! It’s the WHAT IF monster. The WHAT IF monster is my worrying about the future, or as we say in the south, “borrowing worry”. We humans crave some basic kind of safety and security. Are my children OK? What if the test results aren’t good? Do I have enough health insurance? Will this car last until I can afford a new one? Is my mother starting to be forgetful? Will the hurricane/snowstorm/tornado hit us? And so on and so on. Even just the thought of our loved ones being hurt is enough to make the WHAT IF monster grow. These are the everyday fears. Totally understandable and often unfounded. They tend to fade with a bit of daylight and the daily activities of our lives. But that was before COVID-19.

The COVID-19 closet monster has morphed into a beast of anxiety that creeps along with us everywhere we go. It is immune to daylight or activity. This monster sneaks up on us when even we are busy. And sometimes even in dreams when we are asleep. How can we cope when we are unsure what the monster repellent is and the entire world is afraid?

If you have read any of my posts, it is obvious that I use a spray made from humor, creativity and the birth of this website. Most of my coping skills are deeply personal, but from my heart to yours I wish you love and health and healing in your battle to defeat the COVID-19 closet monster. We can do this.