Spring has sprung. Thank goodness. The breeze today is actually warm and the jacaranda is heavy with seed pods. The masks and vaccines seem to be making a dent in the Covid 19 numbers. Another sigh for the warm breeze and sense of hopefulness in the air...ahh. Could this mean we can soon crawl out from our burrows?!? Or will it be a Covid 19 Groundhog Day, cautiously peeking our heads out of the den, seeing our shadows again to skitter back into the cocoon?
So much has happened over the past year. We've changed so many things. We've adapted, compromised, adjusted, side-stepped things which no longer worked and two-stepped to new rhythms of doing things. Now teetering on the cusp of maybe going back to things more familiar, so many of us are asking of these changes, "What will stay, and what will go?" Listening in to the conversations on this question are both amusing and enlightening: a chorus of moms saying, "OH YES" to having kids back in school; legions of women embracing comfortable shoes; dads reconsidering going back to their offices because they have loved togetherness of family at home.
Contemplating the changes we have made and those we want to "un-make" can tell us a lot about who we are, who we have become, and who we are becoming, during this time of pandemic. I invite you to take the time to ask yourself those questions, and then sit and share your answers with a loved one. I can guarantee smiles, an "Amen" or two, and perhaps an "A-ha... moment." My changing list is looking a little like this on this spring afternoon: What will stay? More reading, listening to music, and less t.v.; writing an actual (not virtual) card or personal letter; tele-health appointments; not missing the long commute; watching the birds; Insta-Cart. What will go? Zoom-fatigue; missing dear ones due to quarantines; being a COVID groundhog; worrying about all things COVID; enforced introversion (rough on extraverts!).
There are strains of Irving Berlin on the spring breeze: Blue skies, smiling at me, nothing but blue skies, do I see...