Even in the midst of fear, anxiety, despair, and isolation, there is hope. Joy. Connection. Generosity. It's been a season of getting creative in extending love, and we've also been so blessed in the process!
Even before COVID-19, I have been thinking a lot about hospitality, how hospitality isn't just opening your home to some friends and cooking them a meal, but being open with your lives, to your friends but especially to strangers/not-yet-friends. Then the coronavirus hit, and we were all ordered to stay home... but it gave us more opportunity to think outside of the box.
My first idea was letter writing. I love writing encouragement letters and Silly Bean also loves to send people art, so naturally we paired this together and voila---
I posted on Facebook to see what friends would be interested in receiving a letter and also writing back. Friends from all different points in my life (people I am currently close with, people I haven't talked to really for years) responded, and we were looking forward to send them mail. Silly Bean loved writing their names, drawing little pictures, and sharing stickers on little index cards that nested perfectly inside the stationery envelopes.
It was also an opportunity for Silly Bean to learn how the mail system works. We see our mailwoman every day when we are outside and we always make it a point to tell her, "Thank you all that you do," and "Hope you have a great day!" She and her colleagues are also essential workers in this time, delivering letters, bills, packages of things we order online because it is "safer" for us but not necessarily safer for them, and we want to make sure they know they are seen and appreciated. Anyway, we have written and sent out about a dozen letters in hopes to strengthen and encourage others in their homes!
Silly Bean was also very excited to receive some replies. Our friends wrote the sweetest responses, complete with drawings, origami dogs, and stickers. Needless to say, Silly Bean thinks receiving mail is great 😁
We've also been trying to leave some indirect encouragement for our neighbors. On our daily walk, we always walk past a townhouse that has a few signs in the window that read "This too shall pass" and "We can get through this," along with little paper hearts that have motivational words such as "hope," "courage," "faith," and a rainbow that a kid drew displayed prominently on the front door. The first time we saw it, Silly Bean wanted to do the same thing in our windows, so here is what we came up with:
We ended up only writing "love" on all of them (Silly Bean's favorite word) and they face inward since Silly Bean wants to see the words, but he told me that each heart was for a person in our family (hence, the Chinese written on the back of a few of them). I also wrote "faith," "hope," and "love" on 3 of the paper hearts and faced them outward, explaining that we need to display it "backwards" so that our neighbors can see. We're on the 3rd floor though, so I'm not sure if anyone can really see them, but alas, the intention is nice...
As we shared in our post about welcoming spring, one of our daily COVID-19 activities has drawing with sidewalk chalk outside, mostly consisting of hopscotches (when I say it in the plural, I mean we would draw between 5 and 10 a day on the sidewalks). I wasn't sure how the neighbors were receiving this since the outside of our condo complex is public space, but no one complained so we have continued. Then the day before Easter, we opened our door to find a little gift for Silly Bean left by our neighbor across the way:
Silly Bean was of course ecstatic about having more chalk (not too enthused about the puzzle set) and encouraged to go outside, rain or shine, to do more chalk drawings! We've been branching out a little from our usual and making drawings of flowers and writing motivational words out there as well to encourage.
How have you been able to love your neighbors, or how have they been able to love you, in this time?
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