LOVE LIVED
Love Lived in Covid has many stories.
I know only a few. You hold many pieces of these stories too.
But when we put them all together, the picture of Love Lived has compassion, generosity, grief and fear, loss, and boredom and many nights of tears.
One Friday when Colin was young, we went to the lake. And even though it was late, he talked me into a gazillion-piece puzzle –just one more piece was always his plea — so I took the bait. Sprawled on the kitchen floor he convinced me this would be fast. It wasn’t.
But he knew I would become obsessed, a dog with a bone, I wouldn’t rest, until it was finished, and his bedtime long gone.
Just one more.
Now, as we Facetime, he’s again sprawled, this time on his floor, with two little ones trying to convince him to play, just one more. And by morn he’ll be back doing rounds – in a hospital running low on masks and gowns.
Just one more.
My friend drove back to a gas station handing the attendant who had just served her eighty dollars – this man supports a family earning less than any blue collar. You don’t know me, he wept. Doesn’t matter she replied.
Just one more.
Having let her staff go, a dear friend didn’t know their government check had not yet arrived — they would never have shared that they couldn’t survive. Somehow, she knew in her heart, so she wired them cash to give them a start. They sobbed.
Just one more.
Talking on the phone with a new immigrant, parenting all alone, a dear friend volunteering with a shelter learned this woman has six kids, oldest age seven, twins age four, and triplets ten months with no help showing up at her door. No diapers, no food, no computer only a phone. She didn’t dare leave home. My friend made a list and went out just like that, this is what she does for some 800 families who have fallen through the crack.
Just one more.
People paying other’s bills. People quietly doing good deeds. People having courage to stand up to people who only know how to deal in greed.
You hold many pieces too. Each one has its place.
We will make it through.
With love, compassion and grace.
Nancy
Love to hear your thoughts.