I hope you all had a great Easter. We watched church online and chatted with family over the phone and on zoom. In typical Wyoming fashion, we woke up to a snowstorm. It was one of those storms with giant flakes that swirled around the yard. Snowstorms always make me feel like time is stopping; the quiet fascinates me.
Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote about the current COVID-19 crisis on Medium as “The Great Pause:”
“It’s the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause. It is, in a word, profound. Please don’t recoil from the bright light beaming through the window. I know it hurts your eyes. It hurts mine, too. But the curtain is wide open. What the crisis has given us is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see ourselves and our country in the plainest of views. At no other time, ever in our lives, have we gotten the opportunity to see what would happen if the world simply stopped. Here it is. We’re in it.”
It’s a long article, but I believe he’s right; we have an incredible opportunity right now while all is quiet and while we can’t go anywhere. We get to decide what exactly we want to put back into our lives when things go back to “normal.” My husband and I have been talking a lot about how this crisis has felt a bit like a gift; our lives were SO busy before all of this. This pause button has given us a tremendous opportunity to reconnect with our equally busy kids in a way that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I hope we are able to carve out time for weekly “pause buttons” as we move out of this crisis and onto our normal routines someday.
Music will always be a way for our family to unwind, so part 2 of my “4 Feel-Goods” series is music-heavy. You can find the first part in this series here. My goal is to highlight a few uplifting things happening around the world or locally.
1. Brandi Carlile Performing John Prine’s Summer’s End on Instagram and the Summer’s End Official Video
Music is a lifeline for me, but it has become even more important through all of this. Unfortunately, we lost a legendary songwriter and music icon last week to COVID-19. Google “songs written by John Prine,” and I bet you’ll be surprised at how many you recognize. John Prine wrote hits for people like George Strait, Miranda Lambert, and Don Williams. His songs have also been performed and made more famous by countless contemporaries. Brandi Carlile is my absolute favorite musician, so it’s no surprise that her in-home tribute to John was one of my favorite things on the internet last week. John wrote this song for his last album in 2018. The official video is dedicated to “Max,” the son of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who died as a result of the opioid crisis, but the video is also a poignant reminder of why we are all staying home during the COVID-19 crisis; to help protect our elderly loved ones who play such important roles in our lives and our children’s lives. It’s a sad song, but it really brought me comfort this week. I hope it does the same for you.
2. Jimmy Fallon, Sting & The Roots singing “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
Seriously, this song is the anthem of this time period. And Jimmy Fallon found the best way possible to showcase it:
https://www.facebook.com/FallonTonight/videos/214559143182628/
3. Virtual Easter Egg Hunts in Downtown Cheyenne
The Cheyenne DDA put together a virtual easter egg hunt, and it’s awesome to “step inside” some of our downtown businesses again while we are all at home. My favorite was the Red Bison Studio hunt; there is so much color in that store and it was hard finding eggs in there. So many pretty things to look at though!
4. Andrea Bocelli Singing Amazing Grace on Easter Sunday
Andrea Bocelli sang an Easter concert at the Duomo in Milan, and it aired live yesterday. The whole concert is amazing, but if you don’t listen to the whole thing, do yourself a favor and listen to the last song. At about the 18:20 minute mark, he walks outside and sings Amazing Grace on the front steps. I am awestruck at how small and interconnected our world feels right now.
Hang in there, friends. Stay safe, stay kind and perhaps think about what parts of this experience you might want to move forward into the next chapter of your life. I know that’s how I’m spending my week. Much love to you all.
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