COVID-19: Diary of an Author-Intuitive (The Gut Truth About the Coronavirus)

By Cal Orey

MARCH 7, 2020

This is my first journal entry about the corornavirus. I am not unfamiliar with the topic. After all, I have been a health author-journalist for more than 30 years. Also, I am an intuitive. Read: I have predicted earthquakes, tsunamis, weather, and read for people. Worse, being highly sensitive the happenings affect me in many ways.

Sure, I penned an article "The Real Truth About Coronavirus"--and I completed another piece on "Superbugs".  But I went into journalist mode and couldn't tell it like it is. I felt like a hypocrite. It wasn't the real me.  Last week I posted something about this pandemic (yeah, we're there) but not one of my 5,000 followers left a word or two. Today, people are speaking out. I'm hardly alone. We all have different stories but we're all connected. We're facing challenging times.

As a quake sensitive this isn't new to me. I fielded calls from the media to scared people experiencing an aggressive Reno earthquake swarm back in 2008. As the late geologist Jim Berkland taught me, "Be prepared, not scared." And I did survive the S.F Quake of '89; sitting on the floor during hundreds of aftershocks I cranked out several assigned articles.  And I covered the Oakland Firestorm--witnessed people and their pets burned out of their homes. Nobody was prepared. At all. But we all knew the events weren't impossible.

So yeah, I'm there. I'm getting my ducks in line. Last week the pantry was restocked. (I eat all fresh food so this was put on the back burner.)  I must tell you, that having extra bottled water, big bags of pet food, healthful dried goods does give me peace of mind, sort of. I ordered reading glasses and paper today. I don't want to end up like the dude in "Twilight Zone"--the last human on Earth. He, a bookish type was left in a library. Sadly, he broke his glasses. 

Something's Going On
As a sensitive my senses are heightened. During chaos I feel it more than the average person. Since I was a kid I knew I was different. Being an intuitive is a gift and a curse. And now, I'm sensing we're on the edge of something big and it's spinning out of control like a tilt-a-whirl ride and I want it to stop. But it keeps moving. An uncanny astrologer whom I follow on one of the "psychic" networks I work for also senses more of this craziness will escalate in the weeks to come. I cannot say he is wrong. Or right. But his words and my connection to his vision resonate.

Living in a tourism hub at Lake Tahoe is not the best place to be right now. Sure, I work out of my home and often am in isolation. But now? I will not go to my fave swimming/hot tub resort for fear of worldly germs. My sibling drives Uber-Lyft--this is another red flag. I did read that drivers around the world are fearful of who they pick up. "Are they sick?" and "Where do they come from?" are questions that haunt them and they drive strangers from faraway lands--"Fear Factor" territory.

Last night I read for a woman who lives in Texas. She is a train conductor. Her plight? Will the promotion come through soon because she is frightened by being around all the commuters. Did I say fear? She hung up before I would give her the answer she wanted. Unfortunately I did not see her moving on up due to money issues. Blame it on CVID-19 snowball effect. Think about it. Less people are commuting, isolating. It was too easy of a read. She knew the answer.

Back to my FB wall. Posters are no longer in denial or shock. They are leaving their real experiences. Some of them have weakened immune systems and are frightened. Others have witnessed panic buying and fear fights may break out. Images of films like "Trigger Effect" and "Contagion" come to mind.

Too Close for Comfort
As a native of NorCal, when I heard 8,000 people were home quarantined in San Francisco, 200 miles from me now, I knew it was just a matter of time. Last night a man tested positive--50 miles away in Reno. The other day when I saw my GP for an eardrum issue (blame it on the AK trip and flying home over the sierras), a caller on the phone asked if they do coronavirus tests. It's getting closer. I feel it. And our town's medical people know it, too.

So am I scared? Yes and no. I feel more like the teen in "Contagion"--my life as I once knew it is on hold. That trip to Canada? I am not booking it yet because talk of a second wave of the virus may follow later this year--when the northern lights are there for me to see. No traveling. No book signings. No swimming. And that's not all...

I'm sensing our tourist town, like others, may be one where we must be forced into home isolation. Ironically, as an introvert you'd think I'd be chill. Not so much. I already have cabin fever but going to stores, casinos, even to the doctor and vet seem a bit off. People are on edge. I feel it. And people are not talking as much as their actions are showing fear of what lies ahead.

For now, it's "I Am Legend" time. I've got the treadmill for me; hopefully the dog will not have to use it since we still go outside (maybe when I taught him to run on it there was a reason); healthy food, will sleep, and write but I am like the kid in a car, "Are we there yet?"--but it's not necessarily a good place to go... I'd like to think this is all a nightmare and when I wake up in the morning it will be back to normal. Sadly, this is the beginning our my new normal. And I'm trying to stay in the present but keep moving forward in my mind and think "what if?" 

Then my survival mode kicks in. "Hey, I went to Alaska in rough air" and "I hitchhiked across America with a dog and not a cent to my name." I can do this. We all are in this together, right?
The thing is, I feel very isolated, like I did during the rough air and hurt during my road travels.  But this is different yet much the same. It is called fear of the unknown...