A Time to Swoon

A Time to Swoon: Swoon 37

I did not swoon yesterday, swooning is kind of hard these days. It seems kind of forced and fake. I just went about my day, and there were no real sparks, so I did not write. Last night I had a video presentation for a PSA project that local students are developing with a hospital I work for. I am just the art director/designer, the kids come up with a slogan, sketch, and then an illustrator and I create a campaign based on their ideas. Presenting sketches to a bunch of high schoolers that have been doing school work all day while in quarantine seemed like it might be challenging.

It was amazing. These kids were so intelligent and kind in their thoughts, constructive criticism, and views. They were asked how they were doing with the whole social distancing and quarantine situation… their responses: I am getting more work done, I am sleeping more and less tired, it is nice to be with my family, it is going well. Not one negative comment. It was an eye opening experience. What fantastic humans.

So I am going to jump on their positive bandwagon…

Things that currently make me swoon: cooking dinner for my family, daily phone calls and video chats with my son, saying I love you more, playing cards with the family after dinner, video game nights, checking in on my clients well being before getting into the work thing, learning about how diseases spread and how we can do better next time, getting excited about a vegetable garden, donating to those in need, seeing friends create colorful masks for hospital workers, thanking helpers like cashiers and garbage collectors who are usually ignored, not caring that my pedicure stinks, hearing how fun delivering nanny-made bread (while still social distancing) to my brothers family was, listening to music, realizing that cleaning the bathroom, counters, and door knobs daily is not a big deal, hearing how people are recovering slowly after being hit, seeing people sharing masks and vitamins and cheese (!) via social media and safe curbside deliveries, having video meetings in my pjs and lipstick, calling my friend who is a cook with ingredients in my fridge and having her give me a recipe on the spot, having fun swaps with neighbors and keeping kids excited to wake up and see what goodness is outside their door, picking which slippers I will wear for the day, introducing little kids to shrinky dinks, texts and daily check ins with friends, joining prayer chains for those who are very sick, dancing, going gray…like really really gray, video church and coffee hour, local small businesses reaching out to help others via video lessons and curbside deliveries, spending less on crap and take out, listening to the giggles from my husbands after school art class on zoom as I type this, smelling the food my daughter is cooking for dinner, seeing the beautiful day and knowing I can go for a walk, watching how different people cope and learning from their beautiful skills, my governor and Brian Lehrer, the sun, chatting with neighbors from 10 feet away, checking in on my elderly friends and hearing they are fine, hearing kids laughing and screaming outside my window, cuddling with my pets, knowing my family near and far is safe, as of now… swoon.

I would love if you left comments about what makes you swoon during this time. It helps to know people are ok. I hope you all are ok.