So there’s the happy for today
Changing the title of these stories to “So there’s the happy for today” as I continue to be inspired to write in an effort to remain positive and to have something to document this time for my family.
There were a few big hits for the community here in the last 36 hours. The police closed pedestrian and vehicle access to the beach, which is a place many were going to for a moment of peace. My daughter has been going and sitting in her car with the window open. My friend and her daughter were going to look for sea-glass (or in our case lake-glass). Unfortunately many young people were going there to meet up with their friends or to exercise and they were not practicing social distancing. My daughter took the closing of the beach hard, but we came up with a place where she can go and see the lake from her car so there is the happy (not perfect but she’ll take it) for her.
Yesterday we also heard from the Superintendent that the 8th grade dance and graduation, as well as the high school prom are all cancelled. At this as time the high school graduation is still a possibility for the original date in June, as well as one option for July and one for August. We all knew this was coming and we all understand why, but the reality of it was a hard hit for kids and parents. The reality is we may not be able to have high school graduation but I am confident that this community will find a way to honor our students. I look forward to see the creativity flow should that be the case.
The real happy for me yesterday was the updates I received from a few of my fellow brown bag bible study friends. We are reading The Art Of Neighboring by Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak. We had decided on this book before the pandemic hit and I truly feel that this book came to us at the perfect time. Some of us know all our neighbors. Some of us are in new neighborhoods. Some of us have lived in our neighborhoods a long time but don’t know the names of many of our neighbors because either the neighborhood has changed over time or because we just don’t. Here’s the thing — this is the PERFECT time to reach out to your neighbors. Interestingly enough, the authors actually created a Covid- 19 Neighboring Toolkit. https://www.artofneighboring.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-19-Neighboring-Toolkit.pdf. Check it out! I heard from a couple friends who had delivered their version of this letter to their neighbors and had already heard back from them. I also heard from a friend who had a couple interactions with her elderly neighbors. She said “normally I would have been sort of irritated with them (and I was initially)… but then I took a big breath and thought of our study and tried to feel/show some Grace. 🙏😊 helped me feel better about the situation too. I’m sharing with you more to remind myself (and I’ll share with the group) that loving your neighbors can be HARD! And not always sunshine & roses.”
I myself had a great interaction with my fabulous neighbor. I made lasagna the other night and yesterday I told her I’d drop off some for her. When I walked up to her door she was standing there — behind the glass- and she pointed to the bag on the ground. In it was a bottle of wine for us as well as thank you note. We proceeded to talk through the door for a long while. We talked about mutual friends. We talked about this silly thing I’m doing on Facebook with Easter bunnies at my house. We talked about dying Easter eggs and I told her I didn’t think I had food coloring. She did so she went and got it and added it to the bag with the wine. We talked about summer and then it actually started snowing, which was my cue to leave. I left with a huge smile. Talking to her through the door (and not hugging) was not ideal for either of us, but it was a happy moment shared with a neighbor, so there’s the happy for today.
