It’s amazed me to see how people in different facets of my life have prioritized coming together.
Back in March, my wife and I started gathering over Zoom on Saturday nights with out-of-town college friends, who we probably saw at most once a year pre-pandemic. These meetings proved so therapeutic to all of us that we have continued them almost weekly for the past several months. Initially, the focus was all mainly about concerns about the pandemic and how to avoid infection of ourselves and others. Those issues have been part of our ongoing discussions, but we have also really been sharing the ups and downs of our life experiences each week, in a way that I don’t think we’ve done since college.
Also, after 6 years in our house, we have finally come to know our neighbors. Thanks to one set of neighbors who initiated front-yard, socially distanced “happy hours” on Saturday evenings back in the spring, we have joined a handful of other couples who, in retrospect, seemed to crave human connection without even realizing it.
In my professional life, my colleagues and I have slowed the pace of meetings to take time to check in with one another before we get down to business, recognizing that we, along with all others involved with or influenced by our work, are experiencing challenges that may be greater than anything they have previously experienced.
