Connection is key.

While I write this, we are currently in the 6th month of working from home, Covid-19, shelter in place (in some places) and a very different way of living. And if there is one extremely important thing I have learned this year, it is to make sure to connect with other people- friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and loved ones.

To me, life is about relationships, friendships, interactions, laughs, adventures, experiences and connection. It is about coffee with a friend, date night with a significant other and hikes with neighbors. It is about deep conversations over a great meal, a warm embrace when running into an old friend on the street and getting down in the grass to play with a puppy. It is about attending charitable events, going to yoga class and stopping to listen to a guitar strumming street artist. It is about a conversation with the barista at the local coffee shop while he makes my latte, a laugh with a neighbor on the street and watching a hummingbird eat out of the feeder, wings flapping.

Covid-19 has added a layer of difficulty for connections like these. The stay 6 feet apart, do not breath on anyone, wash your hands, walk around the tree to avoid others on the sidewalk and wear a face mask in public mandate has added a sense of detachment. It has made us all more weary to get close to others. It has caused arguments in groceries stores, on line and in political forums. Wearing a mask has been politicized and had driven a wedge between people. It has made some feel like others do not care for their well being and others feel like they are being restricted by an invisible and formidable opponent.

While these roadblocks have been put up by coronavirus, we can find a way to step around them, jump over them or exists on this side of them not pinning to get to the other side. We can change what connection means. Learn how to smile with your eyes when a person on the street can not see your actual smile behind your mask. We can create zoom happy hours and Facetime friend dates. We can attend online concerts and social gatherings. We can do social distanced picnics with masks on, go for bike rides and order food from local restaurants to-go and leave a large tip for the workers who are risking their lives to feed us. We can write a handwritten letter, do group zoom workouts in our backyards and attend online workshops and educational activities.

Covid-19 had changed our way of living for the foreseeable future but it doesn’t have to take away our connections to others. Find a new way of doing things. find a way to connect. Do it as if your health and well being depends on it, because it does.