On Wednesday Governor Phil Murphy announced everyone has to wear masks while in public establisments in the state of New Jersey. The trouble is, there are not enough masks to go around.
Who will step up to save the world? The President? No, he is playing the blame game. The healthcare industry? No, they don't have enough masks for their own people.
The answer: crafters!
Many (mostly women) are making masks out of whatever scrap fabric they have lying around their homes.
Pastor Nina made these for us:
I still can't believe I live in a world where we are encouraged to hide our faces, including our smiles. Apple was not prepared for this time since facial recognition software does not recognize me when I'm wearing a mask.
But I digress, I suspect many of these same women (or at least their friends) who made pink pussy hats while the President and his supporters were selling red MAGA hats made in China are now stepping up and making masks. They are showing the world that their crafts matter. They are not a way to spend money on UFOs (UnFinished craft Objects), but given enough time and a crisis, a way to save the world!
Another thought I've had lately is that Don's mom was preparing her entire life for the apocolypse. She had over 300 puzzles, 67 trashbags filled with yarn, much fabric that could now be turned into masks, and other cool ways to stay entertained during a pandemic. But, alas, I got rid of it all a couple of years ago.
If only I was better prepared for the end times.
At 5 am and with no place to go for the entire day I woke up sad.
The news I read before going to bed the night before was that Disneyland might not open up all summer. An email from a friend the day before said she and her husband, both Disneyland employees, will be furloughed starting on the 19th. While confident they will have jobs in the end, in the meantime they won't have paychecks for at least several months.
I read another account that even after we are allowed to eat in restaurants, the servers will wear masks and seating will only be at 50%. How can restaurants already barely staying in business stay afloat with those new rules? If they double the price of their items they'll lose even more business.
The world feels bleak. If this was a church sermon I'd have some encouragement about looking to God, but it isn't.
I learned Uncle Bob has Corona virus. On the one hand, I'm shocked (he is naturally the type of person you would socially distant yourself from). On the other hand, I am not shocked because he is also the type of person to not wash his hands and follow CDC guidelines. He lives in a group home for veterans and is currently in the hospital. I don't know when he'll be allowed back for the health of the others living with him.
My friend Laura seems to be on the mend from the Corona virus, and her family has managed to not get it, so that is encouraging news. (Yes, there is still some good news out there.)
A mentioned to Ellen I was feeling discouraged. She said as I runner I should appreciate the middle portion of the race is the toughest mentally, and we are in the middle portion now. Hang in there.
We are a month into the Great Shutdown. A month of barely leaving the house. A month of plans being cancelled (or in some cases postponed). A month of coming up with creative workarounds (like the township egg hunt).
Zoom has taken off from being something a few businesses used for meetings to everyone using to hold family holiday dinners across generations.
The first week into this we were busy canceling events and cocooning. We borrowed a lot of books and DVDs from the library with the intention of reading and watching movies.
In many ways it was nice and calm.
It seems within a week people figured out how to hold virtual events. Instead of attending one service a week, suddenly I was attending three or more. Instead of maybe going to one Seder, I went to several Seders. Since everything can be done from the comfort of home, I could suddenly do more.
Amazing how quickly we went from over-scheduled to not-at-all-scheduled to over-scheduled.
Maybe we should all be taking a pause during this crazy time and not try to be over-scheduled.
Easter 2020 was a bit different from usual.
I started by attending the 6:15 am sunrise service down the street at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, only from the comfort of my own bed. And alone. Don watched from downstairs. Ashley was asleep in her bed. So the same, only not.
After breakfast I attended part of the 9 am service at First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square. I missed most of the service because people were talking to me. Hard to stay focused when everyone is together yet not together.
I did pay attention during PCOL's 10 am service. Pastor Jeff encouraged us all to laugh at what is happening in life. He said Jesus must have been a fun because he was often surrounded by children. Have you ever seen children willfully hanging around people who are not fun to be around?
After that service I watched "Fred the Accidental Docent" at the American Church of Paris. This week he talked about his immediate predecessor, who was born in 1899 and was organist for 40 years. Fred started in 1987. His predecessor was Edmund J. Pendleton. Mr. Pendleton was organist during World War II. He is on the list of pastors of the church since he "kept the church in order" and kept the Germans from occupying the church during that time. It is an amazing story. I hope these stories continue even after quarantine ends.
By now it was nearly noon. Don was on a long bike ride. The day was beautiful so I went for a run. Along the way I saw the Easter Bunny, a member of the Hullfish family keeping the nearly 100-year-old traditional Easter Egg hunt alive, and chalk drawings by Steve and Barbara, members of our WiNK community.
Unfortunately today's torrential rains and possible tornadoes have likely washed away their artwork.
After I shower I went on a Bear Hunt in Hopewell. It was a lovely day for a drive.
I came home in time for a Zoom Easter chat with family from New Jersey to Ohio. In normal years the New Jersey families gather together. In normal years the Ohio families gather together. It was really special that this year all of the families could gather together. It was fun catching up with people and seeing how their lives have had to adjust based on the virus.
Afterwards Don, Ashley, and I did something we have talked about doing over the years, but have not done: we took out the china just for the three of us. The day before we picked up take out from Leonardo's Restaurant, a local Italian restaurant, and reheated it, which meant creating more dirty dishes. We enjoyed eating in the dining room so much we might make it a tradition, at least as long as life is on pause. Maybe next time we will even dress up for the occasion.
After dinner, Don and I took a walk to better appreciate Steve and Barb's artwork.
We are a month into "social isolation" and "quarantine." Inspired by Michael Rosen's book "We're Going on Bear Hunt," people are putting stuffed animals in windows for children (and those young at heart) to find and count. Consider it a collective social distancing game.
The idea is while out on a walk with your family look for teddy bears. They might be stuffed animals of any shape and variety, or even a drawing of a bear. We put one in our upstairs window, but then Mimi, the new kitten, decided that was the perfect spot to sit (as we had put the ledge in for a different cat, it makes perfect sense).
A few days later I noticed this sign in our neighborhood:
Then I saw this bear in the back of a car:
The hunt was on! My friend Heidi posted pictures of bears in Hopewell. Yesterday I took the top down and went on a bear hunt in her town.
Take a stroll through your neighborhood and peek through windows. It might be the only time in your life it is socially okay to look in their windows.
Better yet, put a bear in your window so people have an excuse to look inside your home.
How many times have you said in your life "if I only had the time, I would..." and then dream about that mysterious free time? I know I've thought "if only I had the time, I would clean out the garage, basement, and the infamous back bedroom." Others might have thought that time would be well-spent learning a foreign language, or finally writing that book.
Even Ashley said to me the other day she used being busy for not having the time to apply for scholarships or other things I have asked her to do that she did not do.
We both came to the conclusion now that we have Corona Virus-induced free time, lack of free time was not the real reason. I have not suddenly decided to dust the house from top to bottom. I have not suddenly decided to declutter (where would I take the donations anyway since donation drop-off places are closed?). I have not suddenly decided to improve my knowledge of French through Duolingo or NPR's News in Slow (though I have been tempted).
Pastor Doug from the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square was able to see the long haul more than I could. The first week he suggested we figure out how to use our free time. Maybe reach out to shut-ins, or learn to knit.
What I have I been doing?
Honestly, not much. I have continued to go on daily walks or runs. I've tried to reach out to friends. Mostly I've been worried about the future, sleeping more, stressing a lot, and spending way too much time on social media.
I'm not a happy camper.
I wish I was more organized and focused. I wish I worried less about whether or not graduation would take place (Ashley's school has assured us it will). I want to be making plans for the future, and that is still in God's hands (as usual).
I still can't believe a virus has brought the world to its knees. THE WORLD!
It is all in God's hands. Maybe this is a worldwide lesson in trusting. The God who brought a flood to start over, certainly could bring a virus to make the world slow down.
I should trust.
I woke up yesterday feeling sad. Sad because it was day one of having to wear masks in public. Sad because it was the end of week four of "social distancing." Sad because I'm tired of it all. Sad because it has not been good running weather. Sad because of the people turning into Zombies because they have not left their home in four weeks and feel it is perfectly acceptable to live their lives in that tiny of a space forever, or at least for the next two years until a vaccine is readily available.
So sad.
Then I read about a friend's 10-year old daughter who had a stroke and is in the hospital. And then I read about my cousin's child having to return to the hospital for more treatment. And so many other serious and life altering problems (struggling with a better word than "problem," maybe "crises"?)
I thought of the first Good Friday. Jesus's mother, friends, and followers seeing their dreams hung on a cross. Feeling helpless because they couldn't save him. Not understanding what would happen in a couple of days, even though it was foretold (who among us would have truly believed their friend was the Savior, even if he repeatedly told us he was?).
They must have been sad. Despondent even.
This Passover/Easter season I can relate to the feelings of exile. Fortunately we are living in the age of technology. We can reach out to people around the globe. We have information, perhaps too much information, perhaps not always accurate information, but much more information than people had 102 years ago during the Spanish Flu.
As the day went on something fun happened. The Easter Bunny drove around town with help from the police, fire, and recreation departments. I took a walk. I enjoyed the flowering trees. I saw God's promises come to life in slow ways.
There will still be days I feel sad, or worried, or anxious. There will also be days I smile again and feel hope, and happiness, and can plan for the future. They might even be the same day. It is okay.
As more and more activities are cancelled, more and more creative solutions are happening. Broadway shows are being streamlined. Worship services are happening online. Meetings are happening via ZOOM. Groceries are being delivered.
We don't even need to leave our homes any more. When you do leave the house for take out, it is waiting in a box for you so you don't have to talk to anyone.
The latest activity was the annual Easter Egg Hunt.
With "social distancing," it obviously had to be cancelled. There just wasn't another option.
Or maybe there was?
The first responders in town joined together to bring the Easter Bunny to everyone, just like Santa but better. When Santa visits he splits his trips on different days based on which fire company he is with, and that is the short answer. With the Bunny the township organized it with first responders. They set up a schedule and a route tracker so we could figure out when the Bunny would be in our part of town.
Our time slot was between 2 and 4 pm. Around 3:30 I heard happy sirens. Ashley laughed at me saying they were "happy sirens," but came out with me anyway.
The siren was different from when Santa makes his voyage. This time I didn't hear it until it was a block away. With Santa we seem to hear the sirens for hours before the big guy makes it to our street.
Happy Easter!
Addendum: On Easter we saw the bunny again. He was delivering treats to some houses. Turns out, it was the Hullfish-Venner families continuing the tradition they started in 1929.
Actual conversation in our house during quarantine...
Me: I hear pet adoptions are up
Daughter: Let's adopt a cat so Kitty Lucy has a friend
Me: Umm...that's not what I meant
Husband: That's a great idea
Last Saturday we took our cat carrier to the local PetSmart. They only had two cats with what we wanted -- younger than Kitty Lucy (so she can still be Queen Cat), but not real little.
Don and Ashley immediately fell in love with One-Eyed Mimi, so named because she only has one eye.
It has been quite a week and we haven't even introduced the cats to each other. Mimi seemed to have a cold, so we took her to the vet at EASEL (though we saw her at PetSmart, she was adopted through EASEL) who said the stitches in her eye came out (likely before we adopted her) and she has a polyp behind her ear and yes, she does have an upper respiratory infection. Come back in two days for surgery.
Um, what?
Thursday she had her surgery, but the polyp was too small to remove. Come back in two weeks.
On the one hand, it is a good thing we have lots of free time to take care of her medical needs. On the other hand, if it wasn't for "social distancing" and "quarantine," we likely would not have adopted another cat.''
Tonight is the big night. Wonder what Kitty Lucy (age 6.5) will say.
When I was in Israel last summer I lived on a kibbutz. To say the food was horrible would be an understatement. A couple of times we ate in the elementary school cafeteria and that food was a vast improvement over our daily food. Yes, it was that bad.
Several of us older people gravitated to sitting together. As I type that, I am sad we did not keep in touch.
By week three, if not week two of our four-week adventure, we would talk about our first meal when we get home, with the same emotion I suspect prisoners use to talk about their last meal before being killed.
Each of us had a specific place where we wanted to dine. Most of us wanted meat AND dairy at the same meal (non-Kosher followers). We could almost taste the meal. Mine was a Rossi-burger -- good beef, cheese, fresh vegetables, and lots of grease.
We are now Day 28 into our quarantine. The restrictions get more stringent -- today we start wearing masks in public. The dreams of a non-quarantine future are not as concrete. With Israel, I had a date. I knew my first meal home would be dinner.
When will we be free to eat in a restaurant again? Will the place I choose still be in business?
When will I feel safe enough to make travel plans again? The first trip might be a day trip to Philadelphia, though I'd love to return to New York City and Broadway.
When will I feel safe enough to book a longer road trip? I'm dreaming of finally going to Charleston, SC. Don wants to go out to Ohio to see family and friends.
When will I feel safe enough to book airfare? Next month we are supposed to go with Ashley's school to Walt Disney World. As each week passes, and WDW remains closed, that seems even less likely. This summer we were supposed to go to Disneyland and do a road trip to San Francisco. Again, as each week passes that seems less likely. Where will my first fight be to?
Let me try to dream ... dinner INSIDE Tiger Noodle (a place we have been frequenting through take out). A road trip to NYC to see a Broadway show. A longer road trip to Ohio and Charleston. Waiting until January for a flight and California road trip.
UPDATE July 1, 2020: on June 15th we were allowed outside dining. A week later we ate on the patio at Mountainview Country Club in Ewing. Indoor dining is still not allowed. It was supposed to start on July 2, but after restaurants ordered food and rehired wait staff, the governor said the numbers in other states are soaring too high, so even though our numbers are among the best in the country, we cannot have outdoor dining.
I can no long dream about going away even for a weekend. Even Ohio is out as our governor imposed a 14-day quarantine for everyone who comes into New Jersey from a hotbed state. The list changes daily. (Ohio is not on that list, but their numbers are going up instead of down.) Some people are traveling, but not many.
I've stopped posting my feelings on FaceBook because I am tired of arguing with pessimists who call themselves realists, and building up others holding out hope. Both are too emotionally draining.
Yesterday and today (April 7th and 8th) the Governor of New Jersey announced more stringent rules. This coincides with the news we are "flattening the curve"* around here, which makes me wonder. Is there something he is not telling us?
Tuesday's announcement closed the state and county parks, including the one we walk in every night. Seems some people are not "social distancing" themselves enough.
In the Q&A session he strongly discouraged graduation ceremonies. Meanwhile Ashley's school (and many others) are insisting there will still be graduation and prom, might not be on the date planned, but they will happen.
Wednesday (today) he announced we all have to wear face masks while going retail shopping. He also announced schools closed until at least May 7th (earlier it was he would revisit it on April 17th).
Tonight I am left wishing to return to the simpler days when we were over scheduled and overwhelmed, but at least we had futures. It seems every time I get used to the new rules, they become tighter. Wishing we had national guidelines on what to do, or else just let us all return to life before the pandemic and take our chances.
The predictions that it will be about 18 months before we have a solid vaccine are depressing. Mentally I add another few months before enough people receive the vaccine and we can count on herd immunity.
Some say we can't be locked down like this for two years (just think of the businesses that have already closed), but no one is suggesting a timeline for reopening schools and houses of worship, let alone malls and stadiums. I know, no one has the crystal ball. I also know once we let down our guard, the virus will swoop in and attack with a vengeance.
Depressing times.
Yet in our town of 33,167 people, we only have 37 cases as of yesterday. Does that justify locking ourselves in our homes for up to two years?
I told Don I wished I had a crystal ball to tell me how this all pans out. He answered, he is not sure I could handle the news. That's an interesting perspective. That I'm better off being fed a bit of news at a time instead of all of it at once.
Meanwhile Broadway (New York City is an epicenter that said earlier in the week they are plateauing) announced they are dark until June 7th.
Yet I continue to hold out hope for prom and graduation.
* Phrases in quotes are expressions new during the time of the Corona Virus. No stigma attached, just for emphasis that a month ago I would not have used that expression.
Palm Sunday is often celebrated by kids waving palms as they fill church aisles. Obviously that wasn't going to happen with Corona Virus (CORVID-19) forcing churches to close for the sake of everyone's health.
By the time we knew Palm Sunday worship would have to be canceled, it was too late for The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville to cancel their order of palms. Rather than letting them go to waste, they set up a drive-by station where people could pick up palms. According to their website, they ran out of palms by Friday.
People took quick videos of themselves waving their palms (if they did not get a palm tree palm they were encouraged to wave the palm of their hands). The church then pieced these videos together and played it during Palm Sunday worship. Not the same, but a creative solution to the problem.
The church also added a labyrinth this year to the space between the old and new parts of the church. You can see the ropes marking it behind me.
Every time I see it I am transformed to the time I spent in Israel. On the kibbutz where I stayed was a small labyrinth, really a spiral path that I took to walking prayerfully most evenings. I never saw anyone while I walked this small loop back and forth. Many days it brought me peace as it was a chance to be alone with God and not with everyone else.
Sharing a room at my age was an adjustment. I'll try to remember that when Ashley goes to college in the fall, and have sympathy on her.
Back to Lawrenceville.
Over the years the church has set up a labyrinth. I seem to recall it was inside. We are all adjusting to the new normal, including the church. This year they moved their labyrinth inside. There is a set of instructions, but there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as you follow it prayerfully. You can recite a word (hope, peace, etc.) or walk into it looking for discernment and as you walk out of it, listen for God's word, which is often easier to say than to do. At the center is a cross, because that is what should be at the center of Christian lives.
I have so many thoughts I've created a list of blog talking points. May I find the energy and desire to write about them. Even though Aunt Elva is living through her second pandemic (she was born before the 1918 Spanish Flu), I hope to never live through anything like this again.
Good luck with Week 4, we can do it!
It is Sunday again. The third Sunday since Corona Virus shut down most of the world.
Again this week I worshiped virtually at four different services. I really enjoyed returning to the American Church of Paris, where I worshiped in the fall of 1990 as an exchange student. I joined the bell choir under the leadership of Fred Gramman. Fred is still the organist at the church. He has an apartment on the Seine at the church.
The past two Sundays after worship he has given a great tour. The first week it was a close-up of the Rose Window. This week it was a 9-minute tour of the 3,327 pipes in their pipe organ. He calls his segment: Fred, the Accidental Docent. If you are into organs, you will enjoy the tour.
I also wanted to mention the simple prayer the minister encouraged us to craft. Sometimes it is not easy to pray. Sometimes I want to dive into Lamentations and tell those writer, you think you had it bad, well I can top that (not really, but pain and frustrations you are currently facing seem harder at times than ones from the past).
He asked us to:
Pray for a grief, loss from the week
Pray for a joy, even a small one like seeing a flower
Pray for one or two people suffering
It can be that simple.
I hope it helps me to figure out how to pray again. May it help someone else.
On Monday through Friday mornings my main church (The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville) has been emailing a short video with an encouraging word for the day. While i also receive two daily devotionals during Lent, this email message feels more appropriate because they were created with the Corona Virus in mind. And, yes, messages of how to live in exile feel more appropriate than messages written before the phrase social distancing was part of our vocabulary.
Earlier in the week Pastor Louise preached on Ecclesiastes 3. These scriptures were most made famous by "Turn, Turn, Turn" by Vern Gosdin. I trust you all know this ear worm.
Until she read the scripture, I hadn't noticed the line "a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing" (v. 5). She said that is not why she chose this passage, but it certainly stood out to me.
I'm tired of not embracing. While I wouldn't call myself and extrovert or a chronic hugger, those traits live in me. I am missing human interaction in ways my anti-social teenager would never have predicted.
We continue to live in our exile on the Isle of Lawrenceville. Twenty-one days and counting.
Turn, turn, turn.
A year and a half after Carin's death I still miss her on a daily basis. Some days it hits when I'm thinking about the college search. Other times when I need a sanity check from a trusted friend. Lately it has been over the mask shortage.
When Carin was in the hospital for a long time her creative juices were still flowing. She made costumes out of hospital masks.
Post 1
Post 2
Each one was funnier than the one before.
I thought of these masks with the shortage of hospital masks in the age of the Corona virus. I'm glad this simple pleasure was not also robbed from her.
I think of her when I have people tell me I am not doing social distancing correctly. See, they have not left the house in three weeks (which is the proper way to do so, even if it means they are losing their minds), but I still leave the house. I still support local businesses. I still go for walks and runs. In their universe, that is wrong. According to the laws of the land we are allowed to leave for essentials and walks outside. I understand if you are immuno-suppressed you should't go to the grocery store, but I don't understand why a walk on a nice Spring day should be avoided. There are likely to be more germs inside than in the park. But, that is their choice. I don't have to agree with them, but I also don't dare tell them they are wrong because I don't understand what it is like to almost die and live in daily fear I could die at any point.
I object when they take these pleasures away from me.
I object when they take away feelings of hope (in the form of I hope we can celebrate Ashley's graduation, or I look forward to this being over). They are realists. They know the end is much farther away than June and I should just accept reality.
I think they are pessimists.
I offer to "agree to disagree," and am told I am still wrong.
Well, that's not agreeing to disagree.
I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does. I am following the rules. I do still want a life after Coronavirus, yesterday would not be too soon.
Any time I start to feel a little optimistic someone erases my good feeling with a snippy FaceBook post. So, yes, I should just stay away from FaceBook and live in my own happy bubble. Being happy or annoyed doesn't change the outcome.
I think of Carin. I have a feeling Carin, though immuno-suppressed, would be making masks for hospital workers and still driving her kids around (though the oldest is now driving and has her own car). I picture she would have level-headed advice about how to compromise between living in fear that the big C could strike again, and living her life.
I met a guy today (yes, I talked to a stranger from about 15 feet away as he was doing yard work). He said he has a pretty good attitude most of the time. He is using new-found free time to do some yard work and hang with his small son. He also admits sometimes he is not so happy with what is happening.
So if I am 85% unhappy with this, and 15% okay with it, maybe he is the converse. I'm not even sure about my 85/15 split. I am not yet at 50/50 and probably won't be until the tide turns and I see graduation and prom in our future, but maybe I'm getting closer to 60/40.
I saw an NPR story about how it is okay for the seniors to be mourning the loss of senior year. The story focused on the kids, but us parents are grieving, too.
This is something I know Carin would have sympathized with.
The second week of social distancing went better than the first. Perhaps because instead of wondering what would be taken away from us that day, the governor gave us some things that probably should have been on the original list but were not, most notably bicycle repair and gardening shops. Felt uplifting to have something returned to us.
Something else that is uplifting is being able to worship. Churches have been scrambling to figure out how to change their way of worshiping to fit social distancing. Though it is only 10:15 am, I am participating in my third worship service today, and anticipating worshiping again tonight at 5 pm with my usual worshipers.
My first service of the day was at The American Church in Paris, where I worshiped as a college student. It was very, very well done. The staff moved around the sanctuary, which is a tourist destination on a normal day. The pastor preached about Lazarus being raised from the dead. It was lectionary. My first thought, was "uh oh, how many times am I going to hear this same scripture today?" Fortunately only one more time.
Lectionary means this scripture was chosen when the greater church mapped out their list of what scriptures are read each week. There is a three year cycle: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is read and preached on during every holiday, the other three gospels rotate. I was a Presbyterian for many years before I ever heard of this, so I'll assume this is new information for at least a few people reading my blog.
What was cool about the Lazarus story is the preacher reminded us Jesus took two days to visit his best friends. Martha yells at him for taking so long -- if only he had gotten there sooner, he could have saved their brother. Yeah, no pressure. Jesus mourned the loss of his friend, even though he knew he would be bringing him back to life.
The message being that Jesus (God) works on His time. As we are in a time of exile wondering when the Corona virus quarantines will be over, I have to remind myself they'll be over in God's time and not in mine. It stinks, but here we are.
After the service, the organist (who was the organist when I worshiped there in the early 1990s) gave a docent tour. Let me back up, each week there are docent-led tours after worship because the church is also a tourist destination. Fred, the organist, lives at the church (or at least he used to when I worshiped there, I assume he did not give up his prime real estate). This week's tour was a close-up of the Rose Window that can only be seen by standing on top of the organ. Next week he promises a tour of the pipes in the pipe organ.
My second service was with the church where Ashley was baptized, the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square. It felt helpful to see familiar faces. They are in a sermon series preaching on the Beatitudes (blessed are the.... because they ...) section of the bible. Today was blessed are the peacemakers. We can always use peace, perhaps more than ever today. Not mentioned in the sermon, but a thought I have had is I have not heard about mass looting taking place. Instead I have noticed a massive time of slowing down. Being able to enjoy the birds singing. When i don't fret about what our family has lost (which is not easy) I feel peace.
Third up was the 10 am service where I tend to worship at 5 pm, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville. Kyle preached on Psalm 23, "the lord is my shepherd." I love that they include a children's sermon even though there are no kids visible. They used fancy technology to have the musicians perform from the safety of their homes. A cool side note, many of the worship participants live together.
Then I took a break until my usual 5 pm WiNK service. Same pastor as at 10 am, but this time he switched to his "WiNK attire," meaning no bow tie. The 10 who signed in (maybe 15 actual people, a light WiNK service, but not unheard of) participated in a lectura divina (I probably have the wrong spelling) where we watched a video of someone reading the Lazarus story (see how my day came in full circle) and coloring in different parts of the image, followed by silent meditation and guided discussion. A month ago the Lenten theme was "In the Wilderness." No one knew at the time just how appropriate it would be. Because we are small group, we had time to just talk to each other. Talk about how we are really doing.
I enjoyed being connected to people for a bit, but did not anticipate how empty I would feel when my Zoom friends clicked off and said good-bye. It doesn't matter if I know the people in real life or not, when that virtual meeting ends I have a sudden feeling of sadness. They suddenly vaporize out of my life. I can't simply turn around and have one more thought.
*Poof*
