Month: December 2020

This year I resolve to live. Even with a pandemic I have learned that one can get caught up in many things. Expectations of others or expectations of one’s self. I want to live. I want those near and dear to me to live. If that means I need to be away from them to keep them safe, I will. It has been hard. I’m tired of the limitations, but there are things I can do. I can travel online, I can find new worlds in books. I can write my own stories. I can write letters. Remember those? Emails even are considered old school but what if we wrote each other emails? I love getting messages from old friends.

I send out Christmas cards every year, but this year we had a two fold problem. We underordered cards by accident. When we went to order more, they didn’t show up. They are currently 3 weeks late. Then there were those who moved and we didn’t have their new address. We had a few of those. I guess we will just have to mail them next year. We have friends moving this year and I think all the cards landed locally.

It has been such a strange year. No travel. Staying at home a lot. I’ve gotten lost in so many ways. I don’t know if it is worry or trying to control what I can not. But I know I have done my best. I did my best not to cause harm to others, though I’m sure I failed somewhere as I am notorious for sticking my foot in my mouth. Great example was when I had my Mom over for Christmas. We went by to drop off gift’s at my Aunt’s. We kept our masked visit outside, six feet apart and under 15 minutes. In that time my Aunt told us she was trying to figure out what was next. I had been under the impression she wanted to stay in her house and die there. So I asked didn’t she have a place planned with my uncle who passed a number of years ago? No that wasn’t it. She is thinking of moving elsewhere. Here I was thinking she was thinking death as she is 94, but she is looking for somewhere to move that she can be looked over a bit.

Hopefully that works out, but once again, I see how one should always make sure they have enough information before proceeding. Without it, resolutions can really end up in the wrong place. I think to that end, I’ll just work on staying healthy and doing my best. No big plans, though I still would like to write more. But I’ll work on doing rather than talking about that one.

Happy New Year all! May 2021 be healthier and happier for us all.

Hello to my two readers out there who are actual people and not bots! Apologies for being away for so long. November crashed my computer, which now has a new drive and is in the hands of my child. It also brought Thanksgiving which I was going to spend with my Mom, brother and his family, but with the spiking Covid numbers in California, we had Mom just visit with my brother and his family who rented a home for Thanksgiving nearby while getting away from Los Angeles. We will, hopefully, bring Mom over to our home for Christmas and Zoom with them.

The year is winding down, thank God. It has been long and arduous. But since the election, I’ve felt a small bit better. I feel like at least our country stands a chance in the coming four years. If Trump had won, I fear democracy would have been crushed. We are far from being out of the woods, and I realize the Democrats are no panacea. I at least though feel that the Gestapo like direction of the current state of the Republican party has been tempered, all be it momentarily.

It is strange living in the US these days with a pandemic raging, people claiming “freedom” by not wearing masks and endangering others. Our world is so damn selfish right now it can be quite demoralizing. Yet in the meantime, I have a family who are friends of ours who are moving away. This is sad to our family but it has also shown an amazing coming together in our community.

The oldest child is in my daughter’s class and one of her closest friends. She has two younger sisters that in some way had become surrogate sisters to my child. During the summer we would occasionally go over to their house, or they would come to ours, and we would sit outside and barbeque. The kids would all play together. It was so very… normal in a very un-normal time.

So this family is moving away across the country to the home town of the mom. It has been hard for us to see them getting ready to go. It has been particularly hard for my daughter. This friend, supported her a couple years ago in school when other girls who she thought were her friends, were particularly mean to her. I became close to the mom at this time and the dad too who is a native San Franciscan like myself. This family, has had a profound effect on many in our community. The kids in my daughter’s class have put together a book of memories for the eldest daughter. They are arranging a car parade to go by the house with kids from all the girls classes. There have been well wishes in school newsletters calling out this family in particular as they have touched many. They will be deeply missed.

All of these actions have also reminded me of the good in our community. I am reminded that the little things that don’t make the “news” are really the moments that make up a life in good times and bad. While I as an individual often look for the big things going on in the world, it is really these little ones that make a life, and a life worth living. It isn’t glamorous, but it is real, and thankfully, kind.

This year has had so many challenges. People can be so mean to each other online and in person. It is an important reminder to me that it is the day to day that makes up a life and those people in the day to day that make that life worth living. They may not always be with us, but while they are, they do make life better. Those people on the East coast who get this family in their community, don’t know how lucky they will be.