Cuddling babies
Full houses and standing ovations
The din of a busy restaurant
Running into a friend at Sobey’s and lingering by the tomatoes for a chat
Sweating in a yoga studio with a dozen other people
Greeting friends as they walk through the front door
Cooking for a crowd
Thursdays with my writing group
The sound of kids playing in the street
Knowing when I will see my family next
Touching my face
The illusion of a certain future
Pay cheques that are contingent on a microphone
Hot showers after the gym

The gym
The departures lounge at Pearson
The Air Canada safety video
Homesickness
FOMO
Manspreaders
Close talkers
Creepy strangers
Feeling anti-social in a crowd

Daily death tolls
Worrying about friends who work in healthcare
Worrying about my parents
The fear of missing a loved one’s funeral
The complete inability to focus (on writing, on books)
Crossing the street to avoid people
Standing six feet apart
Pandemic grocery shopping
Dry hands
Covid-19 deniers who have been unfriended/ blocked

The memes
Deep cleaning the fridge on a Saturday night and feeling pro-social
Tom’s baking
Group videochats with friends in other time zones

The deep and abiding solace of friendship, even at a distance
Human ingenuity
The Italian mayors who give zero fucks
Our elected leaders putting aside their differences to do their best for the country
Listening in on Tom patiently explaining complex mathematical concepts to his students
That there’s no one I’d rather be cooped up with than my husband
That at this crucial moment, Canada’s chief medical expert, the most important voice in the national conversation, was an Asian woman. (Thank you, Dr. Tam)
To appreciate every hug
The town cheering/ clanging pots and pans/ playing musical instruments in gratitude for front line workers
That for a while millions of us around the world acted as one, making sacrifices for the common good
The bittersweet solidarity of this shared experience
To revel in the present
Because the future is uncertain

This post was inspired by this Instagram post and my friend Erin who assigned these lists as our homework.