When my neighbors and colleagues and I had to leave our jobs, when we had to stay home, when our favorite activities were canceled, when we became afraid to greet our neighbors, when we became afraid to walk through our neighborhood, when our favorite restaurants closed, when we could only see and hear our friends, our coworkers, our grown children at a technological remove— when all this happened, a few things that we all knew came into sharp focus.
We knew that petty disagreements and small irritations didn’t really matter. We knew that being with people and especially our family matters the most.
We knew that nature was indifferent, that the seasons would turn, that the squirrels would scamper, that the wind would blow and the rain fall, the trees bloom and leaf.
We already knew what really mattered, we just weren’t thrust into a place where we had to think about it every day.
In this quiet expanse of time I … we wonder: How will it change us?
Priscilla Mainardi
Montclair, New Jersey