“Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine, out of the falling rain.“Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow, and fill my cup again.”
The old Peter, Paul and Mary song says it all nowadays. There’s more than enough falling rain to go around, what with the Covid-19 virus, massive unemployment, fractured stock market, and a shortage of personal protective equipment for those who are protecting the rest of us. One wonders how many other dominoes will fall.
Still, plenty of people are out there weaving the strands of falling rain into baskets and bowls of hope. We have always risen to the causes on a national scale. Companies ramp up production of hospital masks and gowns. Volunteers appear out of the woodwork to help fill the need in food banks. And on and on.
Sometimes it’s easier to look at the small gifts closer to home, so as not to get overwhelmed by the sheer size of the problems, and the helpless feelings that can generate, especially during a global pandemic when we are on virtual lockdown to prevent spread of the virus. If you can’t go out, how can you possibly do anything to help?
Small gifts. Going on a Bear Hunt had neighbors putting teddy bears and other stuffed animals in windows so kids can find them all. Creating a scavenger hunt in a neighborhood, looking for all sorts of things from a devised list, although “fire hydrant” was on one list for a neighborhood in the country where there were none! A daughter and her family purchasing two identical cakes, so they could have a birthday celebration for grandma, together on Facetime. The cake had to wait two days in the garage to make sure no infection would be possible, but the party went on via social networking on the right day. Neighborhood walkers aplenty, still laughing about something, even across the six feet of necessary social distancing.
Even in a concrete jungle, tiny flowers manage to squeeze through the cracks and blossom. So, continue to weave yourself some sunshine. Hope for tomorrow.