Day 1 of 31- Gifts

​Feb 26th
My mother and I stood in line at the Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, New York, holding our vaccine registration forms on a clear but cold early Friday morning. We followed the directions of the army men and women, in uniform, who kindly directed us to the lines we needed to stand in. Everything was very organized and efficient. The vaccine itself was a quick pinch. We waited together in seats near a large window- the waiting time after a vaccine is 15 minutes to make sure you don't have a reaction. My husband was outside- he had taken time off from work to drive us. 

It's hard to sum up my gratitude for all of it- for the good fortune to be able to get an appointment time for my mother and I to go together, for my husband for driving us, for the scientists who developed the vaccine, for the nurses giving the shot, for the military there to support the efforts.  It takes a village to vaccinate a country. I am appreciative of every person who made it possible for my mother and I to get our first dose of the vaccine. 

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Later the same day, I stand in the hallway of my school. The children  have all gone, but the teaches are lining the hallway- socially distant and wearing our masks- to have a "walk-by" baby shower for our music teacher who will have a son in March. Her husband has arrived, carrying flowers. There is a table set up with packaged snacks and baby boy decorations. When the teacher walks down the hall, as the song "Baby Love" plays, tears spring to her eyes as she realizes what is happening. They seat her in a rolling chair and her husband pushes her down the hallway where teachers hand her presents. When she gets back to where I am standing, she is covered in gifts.  It is a joyful moment. We have not been together as a faculty to celebrate something joyful in such a long time. I work in a building where everyone comes together always- in good times and especially bad. Envelopes are passed around, money is collected, cards are sent, food is prepared- people just go the extra mile to show kindness to each other. It is a remarkable building- without competitiveness or pettiness. The baby shower felt like another gift on Friday- a chance to celebrate a new beginning, a chance to be together in community. A gift I never fully appreciated until community was taken away for so long, beginning last March. 

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And so here we are, at March 1, ready for a month of blogging. A month of writing, sharing, commenting, reading, examining, collecting. The posts from March are a gift to me now- a chance to remember what life was like for me at that moment in time. It's hard to give yourself the gift of time to take on a challenge like this, but it is so valuable. It is a gift to yourself and to your future self too.

Wishing everyone a month of unexpected gifts and a March much better than the last!