Dear Reader:

I don’t know how many of you watched the CBS Sunday Morning Show yesterday morning but if you did…you know it ended with Sunday’s guest host, Lee Cowan, reading an essay that put chills down my back, tears down my eyes, while clapping all alone in my recliner.

Immediately, after turning off the show,  I searched the internet for a written copy of the essay.  (*A  permanent copy will be kept in my personal journal book on The Way Life Was during the coronavirus pandemic.)

Just in case you missed it…here it is . I have re-listened to it several times and re-read it even more times.

No, the world is not ending

No, the world is not ending.  But our big blue marble sure feels more fragile than ever.

As we sit here, continents, countries, time zones and zip codes have all blurred into single global community.  What used to worry us now feels almost embarrassingly trivial. We cared more about likes on social media than our social responsibilities.

We were concerned streaming our movies, not about the lines of homeless streaming out of shelters.

We tended to look at our phones more than one another.  In fact, we were social distancing without even knowing what that really was not so long ago.

Isn’t it strange that we’re all craving human connection now that we can’t have that connection for a while?

The joy of breaking bread with friends, or raising a glass at the bar, or kneeling together in worship has been replaced with empty chairs and empty pews.

Those in their golden years – the ones who’s thought that they’d seen everything – never thought they’d see the day where they couldn’t visit with their kids or their grandkids, all because a reassuring hug may put them at risk.

Even the loved ones of those who have died can’t come together in any great numbers to mourn.  How do we quarantine tears?

But in all this separation, we are still connected by what our better angels are whispering.

We’d truly have to go out of our way to be uncaring in these uncertain times.   For once, the road to kindness and compassion is actually the easier one.

We can now see the plights of our neighbors, of the bus driver, or the cab driver, anyone who had been forgotten – all views that perhaps used to be obscured from the hustle and bustle of our lives before.

For anyone wanting a re-set to get back to what matters most – the heart of the human condition – this may be that moment … a test to see if love really does conquer all.

No, the world is not ending. Instead, we just might be getting a new start.

      (Story produced by Aria Shavelson. Editor: Carol Ross.)

Simply put…Wow!

My visualization of the essay Lee Cowan ended the CBS Sunday Morning Show with…was a picture of the world with the word HOPE circling it. I googled this but no pictures matched my request.

Then suddenly it hit me…that the Italian children now have a mantra – Andrà tutto bene” which  means “everything will be fine” in Italian. This is the message children of Italy have adopted as they use art to cope with the quarantine and spread messages of hope. (*A reversal …instead of mothers reassuring their children that everything will be all right…it is now the children reassuring the world it will.)

Suddenly I knew who my artist should be…I called Eva Cate and asked her if she could help me out…all I told her I needed was a picture of the world with the word HOPE around it or by it. I also reassured her that if she wanted to add anything else …feel free.

What did she add?…. a black circle representing the bad coronavirus temporarily circling the globe but outdone by a large rainbow...and in almost every Italian child’s artwork displayed on Italian  balconies (in quarantine)…they have added a rainbow. The rainbow must be the universal sign of children depicting hope. Goose bumps. Thank you Eva Cate…I love the drawing and I love you!

So until tomorrow…“Once you choose hope, everything is possible” (Christopher Reeves)

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

I see hope in these last two blooms on one of my azalea bushes…Though the only ones left…the two are going out ‘beautifully’ together.

When New York City completely quarantines…it completely quarantines…