This will be a holiday season like no other. Covid rules all of our lives. Our long isolation and necessity of spending holidays far away from loved ones are the reality we all must face. For nearly 300,000 of us, there are empty places at the table and empty places in our hearts.
At least we have the glimmer of hope that vaccines may provide and in a few months help us return to “normal,” whatever that is.
But this holiday season doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom.
I’ve put up a tree because it always cheers me.
I’ve put up the icicle lights on the front porch because they welcome me when I come home in the early darkness. I keep them up until Feb. 1 when the days begin to become noticeably brighter and longer.
Zoom works. You can share a conversation with loved ones or even a holiday meal. It isn’t ideal, but it is far better than nothing. Maybe even the grandkids will engage in conversation rather than burying their heads in their phones.
I’ve indulged myself in some creative work. This year, it’s doing some indigo dyeing, a craft that has fascinated me for quite some time. I’m very pleased with the results and my apparently semi-permanently blue index fingernail. Pottery hand building on the dining room table is next.
I’m engaged in a secret Santa mission of my own, leaving little gifts in odd places around town. I know those who really need them will find the book I left on a park bench with a holiday greeting or the carnation left on someone’s windshield at the supermarket. Do you have a neighborhood family for whom this year is especially difficult? Can you bake them some cookies or buy small toys for their children? A random act of kindness can make a world of difference.
I’m taking this year as an opportunity to escape the holiday frenzy. The gift packages were long ago sent. Christmas dinner will be very simple affair for just three of us. There will be more baths and quiet glasses of wine and holiday music around the tree. Maybe this simple celebration will become a doorway to future simpler holiday seasons.
I wish you and yours the joy of quiet times, reflection and laughter, even if it’s long-distance laughter.
My exceptionally capable assistant Ava, and I will be taking off the next two weeks to celebrate our holidays. We’ll see you again in 2021!
holidays far away from loved ones are the reality we all must face. For nearly 300,000 of us, there are empty places at the table and empty places in our hearts.
