This is life too
Hello friends,
It's been a minute. Sorry for my absence in your inbox the past couple of weeks. Honestly, I had nothing to say. Every day seems the same, and I kept repeating myself in recent newsletters. Writing the same thing with different words felt pointless.
Recently, though, I've been listening to Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon's podcast, Staying in with Emily and Kumail. In one episode, Kumail mentioned he thought of this time as a pause because nothing new has been happening. But then someone told him that this was life too. Coronavirus upended our routines, but we're still living. Our daily experiences are different now, but life hasn't stopped.
In the evenings a cardinal visits. Birds show up here and there, but this past week the cardinal showed up almost every day. He perches on the birdbath, even when it's dry, and then spends some time exploring the backyard. Tonight a female joined him. His red plumage looked all the more striking next to her mottled brown feathers. They danced around the rim of the birdbath for a bit, mirroring each other, before she got bored and flew off. He didn't seem bothered. This is life too.
The smell of freshly baked challah fills my kitchen. I'm counting the minutes till sunset brings the beginning of Shabbat, and I can say the blessing and rip off that first piece of bread. This is life too.
My dog, Mattie, lies beside me on the porch. She jumps up, thinking we're going inside, every time I shift positions. She sits out here with my dad and me almost every night while we smoke our cigars. This has been our routine for years, and yet the slightest movement still sets her off. I laugh every time. This is life too.
Until next week, Shabbat shalom,
Yardena