· Write about loneliness and sulking in the springtime.
Winter is so hard for me and springtime so, so welcome. The past winter has been lonely, though for the first time I have a partner - and he is a good partner. What I have been lonely for is a variety. Variety of people, variety of activities, variety of physical location. Working at home, eating at home, playing at home, watching at home.... all winter all the time.
I anticipate this spring will bring more variety. Spring 2020 was full of fear and anxiety. We were afraid/ to visit our grandchildren, afraid to go out to eat, afraid to enter a store. There were so many unknowns that despite the KNOWN - that flowers will bloom, trees will leaf, and garden seeds will burst to life - the fears shadowed the arrival of spring, and left a certain coldness. This year with more knowledge, more resources, and more hope, perhaps spring will fully bloom and my fear, anxiety, and loneliness will remain distant and in the shadows, and maybe wilt away.
· What song from your childhood to you visit over and over again? What did the lyrics mean then? What do they mean now? What images or events do you associate with that song?
It juIt just struck me yesterday how many I times that I burst into song that it is a song from Sesame Street. I was the first Sesame Street generation, born in 1965, but I honestly preferred Mr. Rogers. I grew up in a kind of chaotic home and his calm appealed to me.
The first time I really paid attention to Sesame Street was when I often cared for my sister, who is 13 years younger then I am. As a mom I had two daughters who were five years apart, so there were several years where Sesame Street and its characters and books were part of our lives. Thursday as the weather warmed I caught myself singing "hace calor" about a hot day, and yesterday after a French lesson problem where my husband and I figured out an answer together it was "Cooperation, makes it happen! Cooperation, working together!" We often pass a herd of cattle that is all dark cows, except one white and - "One of these things is not like the other..." comes rolling out. Music and singing is an important part of my life and always has been. It's interesting me that there isn't ONE song from my own childhood that really comes to mind, but instead several songs or phrases and lines from songs from periods where I was the caregiver ... and they are helpful, didactic songs, but that's okay. I'll keep them in my life. Lessons set to catchy melodies can be helpful, and I wouldn't want to be a wasteroo.
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