Day #14 Writing Through Covid-19: Happy and Fulfilled?

Today is April Fools' Day. When I was a child, my mother would make a Greedy Goat Pie on this day (pie crust filled with sticks and leaves or cookie cutters or something ridiculous). She would set our table with pots and pans, ladles and asparagus tines. We ate our meal with hilarity.

I thought about doing something similar for my parents, but the day got away from me. Frankly, it seemed in questionable taste to play pranks on people who are already a bit rattled.

In the evening I pulled the car out of the garage to slip over to my 91-year-old mother-in-law's house for our evening accordion practice. The average age of the four people I have contact with (including Dan at a mere 61) is 82.75. 

As I backed into the driveway, I suddenly saw my dad in my side mirror, standing on the parking, a few feet away from the car. He had walked up and around the house for a bit of exercise and was crossing in front of the garage just as I was inattentively backing out. I gasped; my dad laughed. I shuddered to imagine telling my siblings I'd run over my Covid-19 house guest.

I am participating in Ethical ELA's #VerseLove by writing 30 days of poetry during National Poetry Month. 

Today's prompt was from Sarah J. Donovan, who hosts the website and dreamed up this glorious idea a year ago.  She asked us to consider what our credo might be and guided us through pre-writing with questions including

• What do you believe is the purpose of life? What helps you experience a sense of purpose and meaning?
• When do you feel most happy and fulfilled?
• What generates in you a sense of wonder and awe about life and the universe?
• List some basic core beliefs or simple truths that you live by. 

Tonight I asked my mom when she feels most happy and fulfilled. She was quick to answer: when she's completed a big project. For years this woman organized conventions for United Methodist Women (which is why she missed my twins' births), church rummage sales (which explains her unusual sartorial choices), city-wide efforts to bring learning extensions to impoverished neighborhoods, and Thanksgiving dinner for the community's mentally ill. 

She planned and executed the most creative themed birthday parties for her five children: Japanese Party, Pirate Party, Native American Party (pretty sure we called it an Indian Party--). The themes have not aged well, but 50 years ago they were planned in a spirit of education rather than cultural appropriation. There was no Pinterest; she designed and sewed the kimonos herself.

So when she said she felt happy and fulfilled by finishing big projects, I knew what she meant. 

Here are the projects she's tackled in her 12 days here with me:

• Washing windows in the basement. We've finished eight and have four to go.
• Putting together a 500-piece puzzle.
• Remembering where we are, and why we're here. 

Enough.
Stay well.
Write.

Allison