When someone loves you, it’s like having a warm blanket all around your heart.

Helen Fielding

Although we have turned the heat off for the season, there a some times in the evening when the living room feels a little chilly, so I have taken out a couple of throw blankets just in case.

One night last week, my husband questioned why I was using my blanket as I sat in the recliner watching TV. He was certain that it was not cold enough for a blanket. I just gave him a stare. Then he went on to say that he thought that I wasn’t really cold, but that I was using my blanket for security. He made me think.

This is the blanket I have been using lately. As you can see it is definitely an autumn blanket. While autumn is my favorite season, I usually put those items away before Christmas. But this blanket is special. It was given to me by my kids and grandkids as part of a larger very well thought out gift for my 60th birthday.

These days I really miss seeing my kids and grandkids in person and being able to give them kisses and hugs. So I guess my husband was right (don’t tell him I admitted that!). I am wrapping myself up in the closest thing I have to those I am missing the most, and being reminded to give thanks and count my blessings even when it is difficult.

Stay well.

You will not be the same after weathering the storms of life; you will be stronger, wiser, and more alive than ever before!

Bryant McGill

It is a rainy day in Pennsylvania, and I found myself going through old magazines and cutting out words and phrases to use as writing prompts. As I spread the various magazine clippings on the coffee table, words started to pop out at me and take shape. I carefully arranged and rearranged them until their message took hold. I pasted them in my notebook, and the result is pictured below.

I am not “stuck” at home; I am “safe” at home.

Stay well.

Worries go down better with soup.

Jewish Proverb

This morning I woke up to the aroma of seafood wafting through the house. My husband had gotten up early and went on a cooking spree before he went to work where he prepares food for other people to take home to their families. He made tuna salad for my lunch, and shrimp chowder and shrimp scampi for dinner. We would just have to boil the pasta at dinner time. Yes, I am a very lucky woman to have a husband who cooks for me daily, but that’s not what this post is about. It’s about the soup.

You see, today was kind of a blah day for me. It was catch-up day for my students, so I didn’t have as many emails or questions to respond to, so I had more time on my hands. Yet, I felt like I was just going around in circles. I went from one thing to another without getting anything done and ended up feeling a little defeated.

When Chuck came home around 5:30, I told him that I didn’t get anything done today, and he said. “That’s OK.” I realized that was our code words for me saying that I was feeling blah and him saying that will happen some days. So what does that have to do with soup?

I actually forgot about the soup Chuck had made this morning, and when he pulled it out of the fridge and heated it up, I was pleasantly surprised. He placed a bowl in front of me, and the blahs of the day started to evaporate like the steam rising from my soup.

As I sipped the savory broth, I felt warm inside – literally and figuratively. The simple act of eating soup, soup made from scratch with love, made me feel like yes, there can be a little normalcy during this chaotic time. Just for tonight I can rest in the warmth of homemade soup and the warmth of love.

Stay well.

For many of us, life seems to be standing still. We are sheltering – in – place, working and learning from home, and missing our recreational outlets.

We have gone from being social beings whose calendars were probably overcrowded to people who are at home with nowhere to go. It is ironic that very often we complain about not having time to read, to cook, to watch a movie, and now we are home but too stressed out to relax. I haven’t been able to focus on reading my pleasure book myself.

Yet, life must go on, and it does. The seasons have changed, the flowers are starting to bloom, and babies are being born. People are still having their cancer treatments, shelves are still being stocked with whatever the truckers are able to deliver, and those who chose careers in medicine or public service are working the front lines to keep us safe.

When we come out on the other side of this pandemic, what I will try to remember is that although the world seemed to stop, life went on.

Stay well.

The way we choose to see the world creates the world we see.

Barry Neil Kaufman

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a difficult time walking long distances, and I use the word “long” very loosely. On Sunday, I took a brief stroll around my cul-de-sac and the adjoining one. It was the first time I had been out of the house in over a week, and it made me determined to get out of the house every day.

Yesterday it rained, so when the sun came out today shining brightly, I knew an afternoon walk was on the agenda. I decided to challenge myself to walk longer than on I did on Sunday, and I got a little farther. Maybe by the time this quarintine is over, I will be sauntering around the whole neighborhood.

Today I want to share a few pictures I took on my little jaunt.

Tomorrow the forecast calls for rain again, so I may have to wait until Thursday for my next outdoor adventure, but I am hoping to go even a longer distance than today. I am going to be looking for more signs of hope and beauty, and peace. They are all around us if we only look.

Stay well.

Today was the hardest day so far since I left school on March 12th. I don’t know if it was waking up to rainy day, or the realization that this really is the new normal. Last week I was searching for the right word for what I was feeling, and I finally figured out I was searching for the word paralyzed.

Maybe paralyzed isn’t quite the right word; at first I did feel a little paralyzed – like on a snow day when you just keep watching the news to see how many inches you could expect. But actually I was more in denial even though I had been following the spread of COVID-19. Working on getting out work to my students took up most of my time, and didn’t give me too much time for anything else.

This morning I woke up feeling sad – sad that this is my new normal. The day didn’t get better. Our governor declared a stay-at-home order for the next two weeks for my home county. I was staying at home anyway, but that is not the same as being ordered to stay home. Later, I got notified that I would have a 90 minute window to get into my classroom and pick up what I needed for an extended period at home. Going back into my classroom was sad, knowing that I had no idea when/if I will be back this year.

Things changed about an hour after I got home though. As I sat on the couch, I started to feel a little better. I decided that it’s okay to feel sad, to let myself shed a few tears. This is definitely a storm the likes of which we have never seen before, but I refuse to be paralyzed and wait for it to pass. I will keep dancing in the rain even though I don’t dance that well…lol.

Keep dancing and stay well.

A family doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be united.

Anonymous

Today, we had a family “meeting.” My son initiated a family “Happy Hour” via Zoom, and at 4:00 my siblings & their partners, their kids & their partners (most of them), and seven collective grandkids were all online together in a Brady Bunch matrix.

Some were drinking; some were snacking, and some were coralling kids, but all of us were present for almost 40 minutes. There was the normal sibling ribbing, joking, and laughing. We didn’t really talk about anything really important, and there were some lulls in conversation probably because we weren’t used to being “together” but not physically together, yet it was still nice to be together.

When the session ended, I had this really warm feeling in my heart. We certainly aren’t perfect, and we don’t gather as a whole group except at some holidays and even then it gets harder as the family grows, but we are tight. I know that if I needed anything at all I can count on my family and vice versa. This is how family should be.

What really made me feel so good is that I know my mom and dad would be so proud of all of us. My mom especially always hoped that after she was gone we would still be close to one another. Mom, I am pretty sure you’re smiling down on us today.

Today I spent some time in my new book, Old Friend from Far Away, by Natalie Goldberg. The first exercise, Go, was to spend time writing “I am looking at…”

So as I looked around from my place on the couch, these are some of the things that I was looking at…

• My neighbors social distancing in a circle in the cul-de-sac enjoying this almost 80 degree afternoon
• Normally empty driveways filled with cars
• Small decorative flags blowing in the breeze while my flag holders remaing barren
• My coffee table devoid of the week’s mail
• Tiny bottles of hand sanitizer – the peach bellini is my favorite
• Pictures of my grandkids who I haven’t hugged in a couple of weeks
• My purse which has been in the same spot since I last left the house a week ago.

Being home all day, I am beginning to notice things that I have been missing during my “normal” life. The life that had me zipping in and out of my home like a tourist – back for dinner and sleep after a day of exploring. I am hoping to spend these days of self-isolating getting to know my home again. It certainly could use some TLC. I am hoping to get to do some things that normally get pushed to summer when I have more time.

I am looking at all the things that we have amassed over the 30 years we have lived here. Some hold cherished memories while other just hold dust. Having more time on my hands has given me the opportunity to see things that have totally gone unnoticed – things like how my bath towels are getting a little ratty around edges.

In the spirit of looking for the little things, I am going to reframe my self-isolating as rediscovering.

Stay well.