Ripple in Still Water

          Our living room windows face the street and so we can see cars go by and people walk along the sidewalk as well as people walking up to our driveway.  Yesterday, while reading my book, I saw people. It was so exciting. A family of four walked up our driveway and they knocked. We all heard the door and collectively, we were so excited to have guests. No, we did not invite the family inside. The visiting family walked to the end of our driveway and we all came outside and stay 6 ft/ 2 meters apart.  There we were, two families, friends for many years purposefully standing apart. Yet there we were, despite standing 6 feet apart, we were talking about our children, our lives, our parents and how we are all dealing with this pandemic. We stood outside like this for little more than an hour. For a brief moment, something had lifted. We were talking to people, not through phone, nor through a computer application. Instead, we were speaking with live...

          In our home,  I usually am the one who wakes up first.  Typically, I try to be incredibly quiet so as not to wake my wife.  For approximately 30-45 minutes, the house is normally, quiet. I can turn on the news show that I enjoy. For a few minutes, no one needs me to do "this, that or the other thing." So this morning, I quietly get out of bed, I descend the stairs and there is a light on in our family room already. There's my wife, on the sofa, with her computer, trying to master various computer programs that are designed to facilitate her conducting and "on line" kindergarten class.  She couldn't sleep. She had been up for hours. "I guess I am a bit anxious" she smiled through her worried eyes. I know that the anxiety will lead to her being tired later today. I thought about all those upon who we rely, who we cannot afford to become tired. I thought about health care workers, lab clinicians, farmworkers, those who are going manufa...