A Glowing Story Tower

By Donna Jenson, Leverett, MA, U.S.

I’m carried back to April 2020, thinking about the challenges that unfolded day by day. When I was in 8th grade, my homeroom teacher called me a social butterfly. I thought she was complimenting me until I looked closely at her face.

That is what I am. I thrive on connecting with people for most of my fun–like dancing and singing, and for most of my work collaborating for social change. So as the pandemic bubbled and boiled deeper and deeper into everyone’s life I felt the obvious strain on my held-down wings.

One morning at around 4:00 am–that’s actually the time the universe delivers her best ideas to me–I woke up with Kristin’s face in my mind. That dear, old friend I hadn’t spoken with in many months, long before COVID cut our lines. And so, I telephoned her that day, and we spoke of all the things in our lives since we’d seen each other last. Story piling on story till it was a glowing tower.

From that call on, I’ve made similar ones to distant or faded connections once or twice a week, each one leaving my spirit happily saturated and full.