This past week has been a week of firsts - for me and so many others.
Ainsley had her first experience with e-learning and Dan had his first experience as her teacher/dean/principal.
The three of us participated in our first FaceTime live worship session Sunday. We were new users of Zoom for Ainsley's Sunday school class in the morning and an evening celebration my two neighbors (we all have March 18-22 birthdays).
I watched as my mom had her inaugural experience with FaceTime from her assisted living facility, where she is confined to her room. She was so excited, you would have thought they had sent her to the moon. Next week I hope to see a little less of her bangs and a little more of her face.
I attended my first virtual school board meeting (in pajamas, I might add).
We all are in new territory, stumbling to figure out how to stay safe and keep others safe, help our families and our businesses survive and support our communities.
While we can't stick our heads in the sand, I do believe, now more than ever, we need to live life one day at a time. We should make appropriate plans for the future, of course.
But trying to guess what life will be like at the end of April or May doesn't do anyone any good. Let's focus on what we can do today to make life better - for ourselves and for others.
Humor helps. So do
words of inspiration.
I'm finding plenty of both on Facebook, and so I've decided to close my column each week with my favorite two posts - one to make you laugh and one to lift your spirits.
I'll start with the funny one.
"First time in history we can save the human race by lying in front of the TV and doing nothing. Let's not screw this up."
Come on, team. We can do it!
This next post might seem too political, but I found the message so beautiful that I've decided to share it.
"And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated. Some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
"And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed." - Kitty O'Meara.
Stay healthy. Help others. And keep your sense of humor.
- Pamela Lannom is editor of The Hinsdalean. Readers can email her at [email protected].
