We sat with good friends over dinner and laughed at words that conjured up memories in us all: summer camps, paper routes, running with friends from the neighborhood, building forts in an empty lot, dressing up in costumes, the buttery taste of Ritz crackers, cooling off in a plastic wading pool in the backyard, and watching a Fourth of July parade with bands of tricycles and lawnmowers.
Sweet memories of slower days of summer unmindful of any controversies around us.
More images popped up: rolling down grassy slopes, feeling the tiny fish nibble at ankles while swimming in a lake, searching for four-leaf clovers in the grass, scraping the cream off the top of the milk in a milk bottle, and the jingle of an ice cream truck.
Simple pleasures.
According to recent research, these types of memories help us build emotional resilience to current events. Psychologists say that if we can find the positive moments from our daily lives, we can turn our languishing feelings around. Maybe that is why the four of us found that reminiscing about childhood adventures allowed us to open up to laughter again.
Remember to thank an essential worker. We wouldn't be here without them.
Perry Bacon from the Washington Post said it best in his salute to the all-stars of the pandemic. We need to remember the efforts of these people who worked to keep us alive.
by Perry Bacon:
Read Adam Grant's article in the New York Times about mental health after COVID:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html?smid=url-share
Photographer Mary Ellen Mark captures girlhood in the exhibit at the National Museum of Women Artists. The exhibit is available online:
https://nmwa.org/whats-on/exhibitions/online/mary-ellen-mark-girlhood/
I joined Earth Day and YES! Magazine in pledging to keep July plastic-free. Hard to do, I know, but every little bit helps.
https://www.earthday.org/campaign/end-plastic-pollution/
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