I looked over my photo timeline to see what life was like overall during the spring/summer pandemic months. Photos revealed that we mainly dealt with the pandemic threat with a lot of healthy cooking, gardening, outdoor adventures, researching family history, good teaching, enjoying a new grandpup, and intimate online and offline family gatherings. The aim was to look for the promise in the pandemic problem, and those pictures revealed the promises we found and enjoyed.
Now, I'm thinking about a fall and holiday season amidst a pandemic--what will the silver linings be?
Intimate Family Gatherings
Rather than our typical family gatherings of ten or more individuals, the fall will find us with gatherings of 10 or less. That means more gatherings w/less people.
Lots of healthy, home-cooked meals
We'll continue to buy healthy foods and cook all kinds of healthy meals from around the world. Today I'm making harissa for the first time in preparation for tonight's shakshuka dinner. This is a first for us.
Outdoor adventures
We'll continue a focus on socially distanced outdoor adventures near and far--this is a healthy, positive way to get together with people.
Family History
I want to use my family history research to create holiday gifts--I've got a number of ideas in this regard.
Scrabble
One of my favorite games is Scrabble and I love the challenge of the Internet Scrabble Club online games. The game relaxes and challenges me at the same time.
House organization/clean-up
There's lots to do to clean up and organize the house with the goals of less things, more time and simple, beautiful places inspire.
End-of-the-pandemic-journey
Hopefully all these efforts will find us healthier at the end of this pandemic journey. I also hope that the intimate relationships with good friends, neighbors, and family members will benefit from increased intention and care. Further, I suspect that, in the end, our lifestyles will profit from these limitations that have made us think deeply about what's important in life and how we want to live going forward.