Sylvia's Journal

This was a good week, especially for our emerging bulbs, the bleeding hearts plants and the garden seedlings, what with all the rains and dampness. For us humans it was a little less good, weather-wise: it’s still mostly winter (upper 30s at night, 40s during the day), reminding me of something I know all too well – spring really doesn’t start here until the second half of May. The sun remained hidden most days.  One night, after a lovely sunny day, we had difficulty accepting that the (relatively) warm weather of the day was gone. We sat stubbornly outside, around our firepit. Shivering, despite wearing a coat and hat, it wasn’t as great as I had fantasized, a distant memory of a warm summer’s night. 

But it was a good week in terms of learning and human connections. With all that time on my hands I am making time to listen in on conversations around the world, and learn as much as I can. Although one could say that these conversations are all taking place in bubbles – like-minded people talking with each other about the importance of connection, care, compassion and communication, while we connect, express our care and compassion and communicate what we are all doing about these things, or could be doing. 

The conversations are uplifting. They leave me with a sense of hope. All these people who appear on my screen are embedded in others networks and each of those has members who are part of other networks – an exponential affair, all those bubbles. And in all those bubbles are helpers. Like me, they believe that the current crisis is not just a disaster but also an opportunity to re-arrange the desk chairs on this ship that, by the way, is NOT sinking if we continue act wisely to keep the ship seaworthy.

What’s also uplifting is the promise of this weekend: a promise of sun and warm weather, and best of all, a visit from our grandkids with their mom and dad. We have all been isolated and careful for so long that we are pretty sure we are clean. We will be a clean and careful family pod.