Peterborough, Ontario
That day in June was our first real freedom after months of lockdown. COVID-19 cases were going down. Everything was just starting to open up, and everyone was just trying to be outside together. I was swimming with friends in Georgian Bay – big water that has always been central to my life and my Indigenous roots. I’ve found being on the water soothing, calming.
That day things almost felt normal.
But as I came back from our swim, my phone was ringing. It was one of my best friends calling to tell me our friend Peter had killed himself. Standing there, soaking wet, I was in total disbelief.
For the first time, Gretchen Rubin won’t be able to spend the holidays with her parents. It’s a refrain heard around the globe as people forgo traveling, and it comes with deep sadness. But Ms. Rubin, a happiness expert, says that stripping down the season to its basics opens a certain space to prioritize and preserve the “essence of the holidays.”
That might include cutting down a fragrant Christmas tree or creating platters of cookies. For Ms. Rubin, it means filling her home in New York City with paperwhite narcissus flowers. They evoke for her the iconic smell of the season – one that filled her childhood home in Kansas City, Missouri. “[The pandemic] is helping us realize how precious our traditions are and how much we do value them,” she says.
For the first time, Gretchen Rubin won’t be able to spend the holidays with her parents. It’s a refrain heard around the globe as people forgo traveling, and it comes with deep sadness. But Ms. Rubin, a happiness expert, says that stripping down the season to its basics opens a certain space to prioritize and preserve the “essence of the holidays.”
That might include cutting down a fragrant Christmas tree or creating platters of cookies. For Ms. Rubin, it means filling her home in New York City with paperwhite narcissus flowers. They evoke for her the iconic smell of the season – one that filled her childhood home in Kansas City, Missouri. “[The pandemic] is helping us realize how precious our traditions are and how much we do value them,” she says.