A friend and I were talking on the phone the other day. We each sat with our coffee and chatted as we used to years and years ago. While both of us had children scattered about, it was a treat to hear an adult voice that listened to us. Talking on the phone is something we do infrequently now, like most people we choose other ways to stay in touch.

When we talked the other day, we could recognize how much life had changed for each of us, and how much we'd changed our lives. (Tweet This)

She could sit in her front room, in the same house she's been in for decades and smile as she viewed the garden, see how the trees had grown, and remember how each child had left the 'nest'. I, however sat in a home that was three times changed from when we first met. And I too knew how each move from house to house, from home to home had changed me.

We noticed that in this quiet time, we are forced to confront what we've pushed to the side. (Tweet This) We cannot ignore the simple things that bring us the greatest pleasures or disguise the things that terrify us. I told her about the robin that appeared while I walked yesterday in spite of our continuing winter weather and she told me of the bunny she saw hopping on two legs down her street.

We spoke of our early coffee get-togethers, oh, how I looked forward to the invitation to her house to taste her homemade cinnamon buns! Today, I continue to appreciate what she'd shared, her handwritten recipe cards, moved and re-taped into each of my recipe books over the years.

As I've connected with many friends over the last few weeks, I realized that each one shared a memory that was so real that it made them smile or told of a fear that persists. What each one said in their own way is, "I've always wanted to say this...". Every one wanted to be heard.

In the absence of real-time television shows, I've watched some episodes held in the host's home. Seen the disarray behind them, the corner where they hide things, viewed their messy kitchen, seen them without their TV make-up. I've seen a different, but I imagine, real side of them. They appear happy, relieved almost to be this way.

We don't know how any of this will work out, where we will end up with our health, our finances, our livelihood. What we do know is that we are collectively facing this. The word that we hear is, Together. Each one of us is making it through in our own but different way.


Because with this global stillness, the outside noise has subsided and what we get to hear is our own voice. (Tweet This)


And you?
When will you begin that long journey into yourself?
Rumi


We know that this isolation time will change us. Although, we don't know in how many ways quite yet. But it will end, as all those difficult times we've already experienced.

The unknown future will always hold its mysteries. We now understand that we have no control of what it will look like.


All we have is eachother and the knowledge that we've made it through before.



Stay safe, stay kind.