Nothing Beside Remains, Round the Decay

So this Wednesday I am scheduled to give blood. My parents are not happy about this, but I'm pretty sure the Red Cross nurses will have things pretty contained. Also, I am young and healthy and people still need blood. There may be fewer car wrecks because fewer people are going places, and a lot of surgeries and such are being postponed, but hospitals still need blood. I wouldn't want my parents to donate, because they're in the vulnerable population, but how can I sit here and do nothing when a little (and by little I mean small) risk can help out in this hard time?

I'm also thinking of trying to sign up for the Holy Thursday service next week (not this week I'm Orthodox, our Easter is a week after the West's this year). Today was the feast of Saint Mary of Egypt, and I read her Life this week and this morning before (virtual) liturgy, the nuns at the monastery I'm streaming read the Akathist. St. Mary only had the Eucharist twice in her life: once before she left for the desert, and once, 40-some years later when Elder Zosima came across her during Holy Week on Holy Thursday. It just seems fitting that, in this time of forced semi-asceticism to emulate St. Mary. I won't try to attend the other services, even Pascha. Other parishioners deserve those places more than I do.

The world has gone a little crazy. Maybe we need some asceticism in our lives.