Normal?

         When I went to Minneapolis for Easter, Monday was celebrated by breakfast and lunch with friends and dinner with family members. Once the initial greetings were exchanged the many months of separation simply faded away. It was as if we'd been meeting regularly. To mark the third anniversary of Joanne's death I went to a large super-market for the first time since 2019. The Hy-Vee store in Brookings has a floral shop so I was there to buy flowers for her grave. As long as I was there I did some grocery shopping. At first as I entered the store my reaction was "Wow, this is big!" That reaction quickly faded and it seemed totally normal as it was a store I often shopped before COVID. Last night I entered a restaurant, for the first time in thirteen months, for dinner with family who live near The Little House. Again the experience was normal....very nice, normal...but as if we hadn't been separated for over a year.

        It fascinates me that the intervening months simply seem to fall away when activities that have been suspended are re-engaged. How is this to be understood?  Am I the only one who experiences this? The isolation has not been traumatic for me.  Perhaps that's part of the reason that this is my experience.

Takk for alt,

al