Getting Together

In the age of COVID distancing rules. Masks abound. Hand washing leads to chapped skin. And the Freshman 15 is surpassed by the COVID 20.

Yes, we sit at home. We don’t get around much. We are still hungry so we eat. And eat.

In a month or two a few pounds gather at the waist. Soon the pants don’t fit so good, especially in the thighs. That’s a worry! Shoes don’t slip on so easily, either.

The scale becomes the enemy. Fifteen pounds added? No, 20. Then 22.

The diet begins by eating a little less, skipping the snacks one afternoon. Then a full-on breakfast with a skipped lunch and a light dinner. Soon the dinners are portion-controlled. Eating out is once a week now, not two or three times. Restaurant food is still over proportioned and sodium and fat enhanced.

Three weeks later the diet is having a minor effect – we have stopped gaining weight.

Continued discipline shows a loosening of the waist band. We are hopeful this will continue. Only time will tell.

In that context we feel something else – missing friends and family. Those people we have grown accustomed to seeing and interacting with, who make our days normal, are now absent. Oh, we ‘see’ them on Zoom in meetings, church and Facetime moments. But the sitting around a table at church and gabbing away idly was once a passion. Such fun. Amazing the depth and breadth of those gabfests. Part philosophy, part theology (?), gossip, too, and ‘what’s going on at the corner of…?’  Gabbing is informative, don’t you know? Fun, too.

We received an email from a great friend in the community and church. She said, to hell with this distancing. I’m safe. You’re safe. Let’s get together Saturday for dinner. I’ll bring the meal. You provide the place.

We did. The dinner was local fried chicken from a trusted deli, and three delicious salads from the same deli. The four of us sat around our dining room table and gabbed and ate. Such fun! The food was terrific, of course, but the dessert was just being together. Sharing time with one another.

You know, we are still us, the people we knew and know. Once COVID is over, we will go back to communing with one another with a new gusto, appreciation of what friends and family are all about. Might this be a gift of COVID?

Meanwhile I’m enjoying the memory of that shared supper and glowing. Still glowing days later.

Thanks for the visit, Emily!

August 18, 2020