I went to bed last night determined to give myself a major attitude-adjustment for today, Easter Sunday. This Easter will certainly go down as a most unusual one for Dan and me. But it has turned out to be very nice - and I have overcome yesterday's blues.
We began the day in worship, once again tuning in to, and participating in, Memorial Church of Christ's livestreaming service, which was very uplifting.
Afterward, we watched another livestream - an Easter concert by Andrea Bocelli, from the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy. Like other churches, this magnificent building is closed to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bocelli's amazing voice poured out over a sea of empty pews, in a couple of traditional pieces (one, of course, being Ave Maria). Then he stepped outside, to the courtyard, and sang Amazing Grace. Beautiful! At times, while he was performing, cameras from cities around the world - London, Paris, New York, etc. - displayed live scenes of eerily vacant streets.
Following Bocelli's half-hour concert, we sat down to the table for Easter dinner. Because of the difficulty in getting groceries, I didn't have everything I needed for a typical holiday dinner, but I made do with what I had: a ham steak, a jello salad, and some baked sweet potatoes. For dessert I used two cans of peaches and made a peach crisp. I even took down, from the high shelf, two of Dan's family china plates for us to eat from, rather than our everyday dishes.
While I washed the dishes, I was charmed by a dove that sat on the fence, outside one of the over-the-sink windows, and watched me throughout my entire clean-up time.
Later in the afternoon I finished a book I've been reading. You may remember that I mentioned in an earlier blog, that I've been having trouble concentrating when I read. So I decided to go simple, with a book written for children ... The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's been a perfect little book to read during this time of isolation. The book is from her Little House series, and is set in Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880-1881. The Ingalls, and others in their little town, were isolated and mostly housebound from fall through spring. Blizzards prevented the trains from getting through, so the town was stranded until April. No coal, no wood, dwindling food. The people were saved by two brave young men who ventured out on the frozen prairie in search of a cache of wheat that no one knew, for sure, existed. Reading this story makes our situation seem like a vacation. It was a perfect read for helping me to put things in perspective and achieve that attitude adjustment that I committed to.
The day was good. I missed being with my kids/grands for Easter, but we are all comfortable, safe and well, which is a huge blessing.
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