If you don’t want to review 2020 because it was bad enough living through it, skip the second paragraph and read on for meaningful holiday tips.
Hopefully, this last newsletter of the year finds you healthy and happy, now that we finally have a vaccine to combat this virus.
2020 has earned a place in the history books – and not in a good way. The president was impeached. In just 9 months, Covid-19 took the lives of over 300,000 Americans, devastating their families and their loved ones. And the death toll won’t stop there as we now have 17,300,000 additional people with Covid. We’ve been told to mask-up, quarantine, keep 6 feet between you and others. Businesses told employees to work from home. Isolation and loneliness plagued people who live alone, with older adults being especially hard hit. No ghosts or princes rang the doorbell on Halloween. We were told to only celebrate Thanksgiving with the people who live in the same house (or pod if you will) as you. Covid is ravaging through California as I write, on the heels of this summer’s historic wildfires. And then there was the Black Lives Matter movement and protests, & presidential elections—that’s all I can remember.
As we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in a normal way; Christmas will be much the same. One way to ease the pain of not seeing our relatives during the holidays is through StoryCorps. StoryCorps is a non-profit that we love and recommend you investigate this year. Their mission? To preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.
This holiday season, while we may not be able to gather together in person, there are still some meaningful ways to connect with your loved ones.
Here’s what StoryCorps has been up to: “Developed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, StoryCorps Connect is a first-of-its-kind platform that enables you to record a StoryCorps interview with a loved one remotely using video conference technology. The audio and a still photo from each interview go into our archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.” via. We love the StoryCorps Connect platform and think it’s a great activity for this strange Covid year.
Below we’ve listed the recommendations from StoryCorps on a Connect recording. You can also find more information here.
STORYCORPS RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Plan on 4-8 people – all of which should be in a quiet room and not be interrupted. You can share your reactions, laughter, and compassion while you share your thoughts by connecting to Zoom
TYPE OF QUESTIONS:
- What are you most proud of?
- When did you feel most uncertain and what helped you cope?
- What do you feel the most grateful for in life?
- How has your life been different than you imagined?
- Who was a big influence in your life and in what way?
- If you could hold on to one memory in your life, which one would it be and why?
This holiday season, consider inviting a young person in your family to uncover a “conversation of a lifetime”.
Enjoy the holidays, and as always, we are here for you and your families.
Ceci & Jeanne