Yesterday was by far my most difficult day since the shutdown began. Those Easter mornings as we scrambled to get in our best Easter outfits with crooked ties and bows and take a few photos, while still managing to make it to church on time (okay, often a few minutes late) seem like a life time ago. This Easter, I watched the online sermon alone in my pajamas, no new Easter dress this year, as I watch silently in the quiet of my home- no make-up and hair undone. I am not even sure I brushed my teeth first. While I greatly enjoyed the message, I felt so disconnected and alone. Later in the day, my daughter and I delivered Easter dinner to my mother who lives alone, and to my young adult sons
As I write this article in March, 2020, it would be ludicrous to write about anything other than the coronavirus, Covid-19, which is besetting our nation and the world at this time. For many, nothing else seems important but this disease and the havoc it’s wrought personally, emotionally, financially, universally. As the ads keep saying, “We’re all in this together.” That’s true. And we will all have to survive it in some way with our mental, financial, physical and emotional health intact. Many people have weighed in about how to do this, but I thought I would add my own thoughts, in the hope that you’re bored enough to read them and they might be of help to you. First some general tips abo
(with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of "Love in the Time of Cholera.") This is one of the most challenging times I’ve ever lived through, and I’m … well, as my husband says, “mature” – much better than “old.” [Sidenote: I’m incensed by the conversation that talks about “the elderly,” and then defines them as over 60. Good grief! Haven’t they heard that 60 is the new 40? ] In any case, the challenges of this crisis are many, but one of the most significant, I think, is the forced intimacy in families and marriages – and this in a culture that is becoming increasing polarized and disconnected. Suddenly, we are forced to connect. Never mind that this is a good thing. Never mind t
