These March Days

In the letters I wrote to my granddaughters yesterday I said that they will always remember these March days of 2020.For now they are March days and it is quite certain these strange days will continue into April and May and who knows how much longer. Strange days of continual change and more social withdrawal. Unprecedented I keep hearing and that is true in some ways but not in others. Previous generations experienced similar uncertainty, massive change in the regular way of things and deep fear for what the future would bring. Mothers and wives watched men go off to a cruel war not knowing when or if they would return. Rationing and shortages were commonplace and sacrifices were made.Futures were altered ,taken away and reshaped.Each family faced their own challenges and adapted in their own way but a common bond cemented that generation and shaped them for years to come.So here we are living these March days and trying our best to navigate our way through. Huge change and constant re calibrating of all we have believed to be true about our present lives.None of this is easy whether you are ten or eighty. It occurred to me the other day that our parents and grandparents passed on wisdom and guidance to us because of the experiences they lived through. And now I am the grandparent and I have been called to glean truth from life and pass it on. So I say "This too will pass" , "Be kind" , "Be thankful",Remember the people you are self isolated with are the people who love you the most and who you love the most so remember to be kind to them" "Come out of this with more nice moments to remember than nasty ones" I can hear in my head my mom singing" Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but Me" and the profound "Mares Eat Oats and Does eat oats and Little lambs eat Ivy" Not so much does it matter what we say or what we sing but who we find ourselves to be in all this.So I will live these March days trying to be kind, trying to remember what really matters and trying to pass on a truth that has been revealed to me in these March days.