A visitor to the yard during this morning’s rains brought smiles to our faces.

A very sweet and pleasant birthday party for Pattie’s sister was a real highlight of the day.  With the six attendees all distancing around a large table, it was so very nice to see them all looking well.  Jen and Ciaran came over to our porch for a drink/tea later in the afternoon, and we really enjoyed watching so many in the n’hood walking and jogging while the four of us caught up a bit on life. 

As Jenny said, it’s just so hard to not greet people more personally, to reach out and hug; to meet someone and not shake hands.

Those habits, not universal practices, but certainly the norm here in the U.S., aren’t the most healthy.  But the act of touching, of making physical contact, is a gesture of connection, on some level an act of empathy.  [To be sure, there are those who use such greetings as acts of power games, but those are people to be ignored in my mind.]  Perhaps we’ll come to shift to a bow, a graceful act of respect…but the physical connection says just that, we are connected.

I miss that.