Sparkle

The world has become so small so quickly. A virus surfaced four months ago, and swiftly sweeps across the globe. This seems so sudden.

One of the social upheavals arises from city lock down, closing school, and isolating one from each other. Here's a heartbreaking reality: people can't visit their parents, even on their deathbeds, for fear of spreading the virus.

In these crazy times, we all need some encouragement to keep ourselves calm. To choose joy for the family, my wife signed up for Netflix and introduced Hayao Miyazaki's movies to Jasmine. I wasn't able to watch Laputa with them, but I was thrilled to be invited by Jasmine to join her arts craft activity this afternoon. That's making use of sandpaper to polish seashells we'd collected from Oki Islands two years ago.

"Good idea." I said. "I like to work out." I joined her and starting scrubbing, really, really hard. Making a seashell smooth and sparkling can be a cathartic and exciting exercise for both kids and adults. We'd been occupied for an uber-entertaining stretch of time.

If you ask me, I would say that children's ideas are what we need to get through these difficult days. A gold mine.