Featured Refresh
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Oh! It's Tuesday again! How time flies when you are locked down and can't go anywhere. ... I submitted this photograph for the Newton Community Pride photography competition. ... This is what I wrote for my contest submission: "From the beginning of the Covid lock-down, I sewed more than 350 masks—asking only that recipients donate to the Newton Food Pantries. After completing each batch, I would tape labeled packages to our front door. When friends, neighbors, and others, came to pick up their masks, I would open the door a few inches, just enough to hear one another. I cherish those visits, as mask-making seemed like my only personal contact to the outside world. This photo was taken in early spring, less than one month into lock-down." When I look at it now, it seems like the distant past. Not that we aren't still locked down, but an endless cold and rainy spring ended with extremely hot summer weather, changing my mood from down and dreary to one of hope--until, of course, I remember what's really going on. ... Fortunately, the days are longer now. That's the good news. Difficult news is that almost everyone has been remarking how tough they think it will be once our days begin to darken. Technically, post-solstice, our days ARE darkening earlier. I refuse to acknowledge shorter days until after Labor Day!
July 6, 2020
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Talk about what brings you happiness these days.
I'm so glad you asked this question. It's so important to try and stay focused on the positive where/when we can. Things that bring me happiness are sowing my garden, pickling the cucumbers I have grown, tending to my house plants, cuddling with my cat, talking with my son and daughter, playing guitar, zooming for my bi-weekly book club with my 12 year old niece, cooking, writing fiction, writing in my journal, and yoga! I Might add that this pandemic journal also brings me happiness. I love the idea that some day, somewhere someone will read our words and hear what we went through. It's not the pandemic itself that is the problem, I think. It is the human response to it--in particular the US government. But it's also a wider symptom of how bad humans are at sharing the planet with other species. We have the science. We know we need to increase biodiversity and protect habitat. But corporate and individual greed get in the way. Paradoxically, writing this last paragraph actually made me happy. Even though it's a depressing theme, I am happy it's going into a record somewhere!
August 10, 2020