COVID Time: Routine Disruptions

So already, in my last blog post, I talked about some routines that were getting me through this time of sheltering in place courtesy of COVID-19. I write just two weeks later to say that two routines I made a big deal about--my reading and writing routines--have largely gone by the wayside. Don't be fooled just because I'm sitting here writing this blog post today.

Right now, wearing a mask and washing my hands are the two routines most crucial not only to my well-being, but to my sense of well-being. Given that I can't always shelter in place because I periodically need to buy groceries, drop off medication to my dad, and collect my mail from my building's well-traveled lobby, my most important routines are intended to keep me safe.


It surprises me what routines are most important to my emotional and spiritual safety right now. I've always looked at those necessary chores I do every morning--making the bed, showering, brushing and flossing my teeth, washing the breakfast dishes, straightening the living room--as things to get out of the way so my day could really begin. Currently, though, the fact that I can do do them in just the ways I have always done them makes them feel more like blessings than chores: one more day of feeling gloriously, monotonously healthy and normal. Each morning I've been marveling at my good fortune in being physically able to do my "household work"--too many others at present can't--and giving thanks that COVID-19 hasn't changed everything about the shape of my days.


I felt all of this so strongly of late that I pulled out the prayer book I was given in 5725 (it's now 5780) by the Temple Emeth Religious School. I've been rereading--yes, I guess I'm praying--those morning blessings that thank God for having "made of our bodies wisely" (13) while acknowledging that our bodies don't always work perfectly. Imperfect and mortal as our bodies are, Jews are supposed to give thanks (many do!) for all the days our bodies work correctly--and we definitely give thanks when they recover from those times when they can't or don't work as they are designed to. By the way, the next paragraph of the prayer assures that God at some point "will take life from me, but only to continue it in another world" (15).

There is one routine that I wrote about two weeks ago that I have continued, and that routine is walking near the salt marshes close to Wollaston Beach. It's been especially uplifting to walk near the marshes because spring just refuses to pay COVID-19 any mind. Most recently, during these COVID-19 peak weeks, I've walked wearing my mask, something I didn't feel the need to do a few weeks ago, but I've still been down there, along with the other salt marsh enthusiasts (we're fewer in number than the beach enthusiasts, and that's a good thing at this moment). The marsh isn't greening just yet, but that white speck you see in the middle of this picture is an egret--the first I've seen this spring. And yes, there are blessings for such sightings :

"On seeing the small-scale wonders of nature, such as beautiful trees, animals, and people [Note: there's another blessing for seeing large-scale wonders of nature**]:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, shekacha lo beolamo."**

At such a moment, some people--myself included--might also think to say the Shehecheyanu, the Jewish prayer reserved for very big firsts, and sometimes for periodic, anticipated firsts that signal having made it through to a new season once more. Translated from the Hebrew, the prayer is "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season."*** During the pandemic era, I'm all for those blessings that thank God for "our" being alive and for nature's being alive.

It was good that Passover came during the past week, and I'm suspecting many of those celebrating Easter today are feeling similarly buoyed by their religious tradition, even if this year has required a different kind of celebration. At my age, the Seder is indeed a routine, and as such, it grounds me in something even if my "Seder for One" was a new experience, a spiritual innovation. I love that it got me to turn off the television, turn my attention to another crisis, and pay attention to something important, ancient, familiar, and relevant.

I've just begun another Jewish routine, one that's much newer to me. For the second time in my life, I'm counting the omer. This involves saying--remembering to say!--a particular blessing every evening that specifically notes which of the 49 days it is of that period stretching from the second day of Passover to Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates Moses' receiving the Torah from God on Mt. Sinai. It also involves, for me, being mindful and spiritually directed. I've followed Rabbi Simon Jacobson's The Counting of the Omer guide once before--thought the questions Jacobson asked were really good, was glad that I could think more and journal less, and enjoyed trying to put my self-reflection into action since each day follows reflection with an exercise to prompt action--a good thing for me since I tend to think rather than act. Of late, I've had some very positive feelings about a lot of people--gratitude,  admiration,  love, sometimes some combination of these. I'd like those people to know, and that means I must act.

So as I began the 49-day reflection-and-action routine the other day, what struck me almost immediately was how different it was to be approaching this process this year, given the "requirements" COVID-19 has created for all of us. The first day asked us to "Examine the love aspect of love; the expression of love and its level of intensity." I don't think my cousin Nancy is counting the omer, but I do think she did a great job of doing the first day's task: "Find a new way to express your love to a dear one."**** Thank you, Nancy, for coming with me today to visit my parents: like so many elders in America, they are currently quarantined in their senior living community. You were an awesome visitor at the window.

Today's exercise bid me to "Offer a helping hand to a stranger."**** Oh, the irony of the moment--that helping hand better be a metaphorical and not an actual hand! But I have an idea. If I can figure out how to do it, you'll read about it here. Stay well, everyone, and thank you for reading! And may your own routines comfort and sustain you during this unique, challenging time.

* Brecher, C.M., compiler and arranger. (1960). Graces, hymns, and blessings. NY: Ktav Publishing  House, Inc.
** https://reformjudaism.org/practice/prayers-blessings/daily-blessings-wonders-nature 
*** https://reformjudaism.org/practice/prayers-blessings/shehecheyanu
**** Jacobson, S. (2013). A Spiritual Guide to counting of the omer: The forty-nine days of Sefirah.  Brooklyn: Meaningful Life Center.