THE YEAR OF STAYING HOME

We’re all painfully familiar with what the news machine elects to feed us in terms of alarmist headlines and daily case counts, and it’s easy to be pulled down into the dark eddies of that relentless stream.

But we’re also seeing new strengths, fresh optimism, and graciously altered behavior that will stay with us long after COVID is gone—if we are fortunate, and make the effort. 

For years I have bicycled through my community every morning for exercise and fresh air. In recent weeks I've witnessed a transformation that's a direct result of the stay-at-home edict.

Parents playing with their children. Outdoors. Daily. Often both parents. Drawing chalk figures on the street. Pushing wagons, tricycles and other tiny conveyances bearing gleeful kids.

Residents of all ages outside on the streets. Walking, running, cycling and, like me, enjoying the fresh air and motion. Sometimes it’s a challenge to maintain a safe distance, so many are out there. Others are sitting on their front porches for the first time—talking to each other, reading, shouting greetings to the steady flow of passersby. We are visibly changed. Less focused on tiny smartphones and 50-inch TV screens and newly aware of our environment and the people around us.

Home and yard projects are being tackled up and down every street. Garage clean-outs, painting, extensive gardening. New swimming pools, fences, windows, doors and gutters. It’s inspiring to see neighbors investing in their homes, and to grasp the financial optimism these investments demonstrate. We know the economic sag is temporary and we will come back. Probably faster and stronger than we can even imagine.

The constant din of highway noise, train horns, and air traffic has been replaced by a lovely quiet that lets the birdsong ring and the laughter of active, happy children echo down the street. And now that call centers around the world are closed, what kind of amazing gift is the quiet telephone? 

The thoughtful, beautiful work called Desiderata counsels us to go placidly, amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. My wish is that you are able to savor every quiet moment for as long as this unexpected peace transforms us. No doubt the din will return before we are altogether ready.