Dear Reader:

Didn’t we all hear this phrase ” We’re in this together” during the thick of the pandemic-even though it felt like we were alone and isolated during this scary time with no end in sight?

Now the days are brighter and lighter for most Americans…yet I still feel what my brother tried to explain to me- survivors guilt syndrome – (after he returned from Vietnam)-when I look at the horrors that second and third waves of the Covid-virus are doing to other countries, like India. Heartbreaking!

As a global community it is hard to see parts of the world’s ” neighborhoods “in such despair!

Since I am acutely a visual learner I remember picturing this huge life raft with all of the world’s people clinging to it in desperation as the pandemic ocean kept washing waves over it as people were swept away.

When I can pull back,give myself some thinking and breathing room… I realize that I have only met a handful of people in my life that share my approximate times-line… whose life span will roughly imitate mine in years and days. We are time travelers sharing the same planet in an allotted space of time yet we will never meet in this lifetime. Barriers like oceans, continents, countries, and cultures keep us apart. We all have different experiences and stories to share… and perhaps that is the secret to our planet time-share… we are united when we share the collective stories of our lives on earth.

So until tomorrow…Perhaps if each human can give their individualized quantum of kindness, compassion, and joy to each other-our stories will live on long after we are gone!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Poih

Boats have become popular headstone symbols -of pandemic victims-the victims are heading home finally safe from the chaos of life.

” Peace! Peace! To be rocked by the infinite!

Stanley Kunitz -The Long Boat