Our household appreciated Carter Crane’s thoughts about gratitude, and proper English usage, last week in The Voice. We have tried to keep a positive and grateful attitude, thankful that my husband is working from home, though my job is suspended for now, and we have the easier task of sheltering in place. All of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who are absorbing the front line risks in hospitals, grocery stores, delivering mail, and other essential services. I hope society has a renewed appreciation for these people after this crisis abates.
Just like many, we have tackled some home improvement projects such as painting walls, hanging new doors, sorting closets, and cleaning behind furniture, where there is dust from when our children still lived at home. If, similar to me, you need a break from cleaning, I have a few suggestions.
• Sort your computer files and back up everything important on flash drives or an external hard drive, or whatever the newest medium is that I haven’t learned about yet. I know everyone uses “the cloud,” but for anything important, in these uncertain times, we want many things to be private and accessible for anyone who might need to sort through our important documents if we were to fall ill suddenly. Make sure there is a hard copy file. Let your loved ones know how to gain access to your will, living will, insurance information, and other necessary documents.
•Another gift you can give your children, or other next of kin, is an index of family heirlooms with pictures, descriptions, and stories about why you or your ancestors treasured them. My husband’s grandparents taped notes to many of the items. Had we not found some of them, we would have thrown away a number of antiques which had interesting family stories attached. Having these stories and items that have been passed through many generations is a priceless gift and now is a perfect time to prepare that gift for those who will be the curators of your legacy.
• Finally, catch up on your reading! Many of us have grown so accustomed to visual entertainment that we have forgotten the power and joy of well crafted stories and using our imaginations to take us to far away places.
When you are finished with all the work and play, take a look at the list of restaurants printed in The Voice the last two weeks and this week and order something to both brighten your day and help keep the businesses you love open and profitable. We were thrilled to see that The Voice had collected pages of information about so many excellent Aurora-area restaurants, complete with phone numbers and hours of operation.
Although we all have our favorites, we might be reminded of some places we haven’t patronized in awhile, but would not want to lose. Together we can not only get through these weeks, but do some good to enrich others’ lives, as well.