One word for today: friends.

During this time of social distancing, I have realized that many of my friendships have been easily sustained by the hours we all spend around our kids’ activities.

But now there are no gatherings on the sidelines.  There is no spontaneous bursts of laughter as we regale each other with the stories of our every day lives.  No natural checking in on how everyone is doing… no updates on what colleges the seniors are thinking of… no photos of prom photos…

After just days of this, one friend suggested that we schedule a Zoom meeting. “It will be fun just to see each other.” 

We’ve now made it a weekly appointment.  Not everyone can make it every time, and that’s fine.  We have no agenda.  Pets, children and husbands come wandering through occasionally.  It’s very casual–and yet very important.

Here’s the fun part, which pushes it officially into the “silver lining” for me: it seems like we are somehow sharing more. If our friendships just were still just those sporadic chats whenever we ran into each other, I don’t think we would be all talking at this same level. 

A virtual tip of the hat to the folks at Zoom for this service!