What are you and your family doing this summer?

Without camps to keep the kids busy and vacations to plan, summertime 2020 may seem dismal. Still, thinking creatively about incorporating spirituality, self-improvement, and service into your family’s life could provide teaching moments along with family togetherness.

My ideas are based loosely on Scripture teachings on the seven Corporal Works of Mercy. I’m sure you can think of many others.

Feed the Hungry

• Research, identify and contribute financially to organizations that serve the hungry.
• Try not to purchase more food than you are able to eat. If you notice that you end up throwing groceries away each week, purchasing less groceries would eliminate waste.
• Organize your kitchen – Keep supplies up to date, throw away expired food and donate extras to the needy.
• Plan your meals a week at a time to conserve food and calories. Keep a list of the foods in your freezer and date them.
  
  

Give Drink to the Thirsty

• Donate to help build wells for water for those in need.
• Make an effort not to waste water.

Shelter the Homeless

• Consider volunteering or financially supporting food banks, such as Catholic Charities’ Cantlay Center.
• Donate time or money to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity that build homes for those who need shelter.
• Donate warm blankets to homeless shelters.

Visit the Sick

• Give blood.
• Spend time volunteering at a nursing home.
• Offer to assist caregivers of chronically sick family members.
• Next time you make a meal that can be easily frozen, make a double batch and give it to a family who has a sick loved one.
• Plan for sickness – Fill out your health care directive and give copies to your partner and family.

Visit the Prisoners

• Consider supporting the Diocese of Orange’s Restorative Justice and Detention Ministry.
• Donate to charities that give Christmas presents to children whose parents are in prison.

Bury the Dead

• Send a sympathy card to someone who has recently lost a loved one. 
• Spend time planning your own funeral.
• Visit the graves of your friends and relatives.
• Plan for your passing – Write a will, purchase your plot, inform your family of your wishes.

Give Alms to the Poor

• Skip the morning latte and put that money toward a good cause.
• Help the suffering: Make sure you continue to donate to the needy during this period of isolation.
• Find a charity that is meaningful to you and volunteer your time or donate. 

Other Ways to Incorporate Mercy

• Reach out to the lonely – Call, text, or email a friend every day.
• Nurture family ties – Have a good conversation with a family member.
• Love your enemies – Forgive someone who has hurt you.
• Organize your finances – Reconcile your bank accounts, make payments on time, make sure your next of kin knows where your money is.

​Spirituality

• Praise God – Sustain daily prayer life.
• Read Scripture – Get in touch with the word of God.
• Love your family – Plan and execute family meals, including family members via livestreaming on Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype or FaceTime if necessary.
• Love your enemies – Forgive someone who has hurt you.

Conservation and Stewardship

• Be good to animals – Play with your dog or cat or adopt a pet.
• Get in touch with nature – Take a walk in the sunshine.
• Take care of the Earth – Improve your recycling efforts.
• Atone for your sins – Make a spiritual or in-person confession.
• Clothe the naked – Donate used, clean clothing to a charity like Goodwill Industries.
• Develop your skills – Hone a practical skill such as cooking or baking.
• Cleanliness is next to godliness – Develop good housekeeping habits.
• Minimalism brings us closer to God – Pare down your possessions.
• Conserve resources – Use less gas, don’t turn on the air conditioner, drive less.
• Conserve food – Eat less.
• Get your vitamins – Eat healthier foods and take vitamins.
• Make the world more beautiful – Improve your front yard.
• Take care of your home – Paint it inside and out, wash the walls, power-spray the walkways.

Self-Improvement

• Expand your horizons – Read an article or book chapter every day.
• Improve your mind – Tackle something complicated every day.
• Get in touch with your feelings – Create and sustain a journaling habit.
• Do a workout every day.
• Be happy – Cultivate a positive frame of mind.
• Look inward – Practice prayer, meditation, and mindfulness.

​All these ideas will make you happier, make your kids feel like they have a purpose in their life and help you to think with a higher goal in mind. Give it a try…

We are each coping with the COVID-19 pandemic in our own ways – cleaning, baking, binge-watching Netflix – anything to relieve the isolation, boredom, and loneliness.

Technology keeps us working and in touch with one another professionally; I’ve never participated in so many Zoom and Google Hangouts meetings in such a short time.

Still, perhaps never before has it been so important to take advantage of online resources to creatively deal with our isolation.

​
​Here are some of the ways I’ve been spending my time; I relish this period as a kind of breather from the brisk pace of my formerly ‘normal’ life.

1. There’s no time like today to reach out to old friends, visit shut-in neighbors, call colleagues, and become a better listener. I’ve made it a point to contact a friend each day just to check in, and to call my mother every night. In some ways, I’m closer to others than ever emotionally even though I can’t physically hug or kiss them.

2. We also have the opportunity to work on ourselves. Journaling, meditation and mindfulness, prayer and contemplation can soothe and nurture us. Although the churches are closed, I’ve been using this time to read spiritual books, attend livestreaming Mass, and journaling every afternoon in my online diary. It’s funny how a crisis brings us to God.

3. Mastering new skills offers us a sense of accomplishment and produces something positive. I’m taking a video course in calligraphy, I’ve learned how to make cooking extracts from scratch, I baked my first loaves of bread, and made my first-ever cheesecake.

4. Getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air benefits our bodies, minds, and spirits. Enjoying a simple walk through the neighborhood is good for the soul. Every afternoon I fix my husband and I a cup of half-caffeinated espresso and we sit on our shady patio playing with the dog. I treasure those moments of rest and togetherness, as well as the beauty of spring all around us.

5. Exercising indoors and outdoors strengthens our bodies and relieves our minds of anxiety. If I didn’t have my hourlong walk every afternoon I think by now the novel coronavirus sheltering-in-place would have driven me crazy.

6. Sleeping as well and as much as possible provides a much-needed break from our worries and gives our bodies the rest and recovery they need. If you’re like me, sleep is difficult and shorter because of anxiety. In my case, a temporary sleeping aid helps, as does yoga and slow stretching before bed.

7. Minimalism and downsizing may be buzzwords, but they have an important place in orderly homes. Using this time to reorganize our pantries, cull through the clothing in our closets that no longer fits and throwing out extraneous clutter can free our sightlines and make our homes more restful. I’ve found that reorganizing my pantry and kitchen cabinets has given me a fresh new perspective on life.

8. Spring cleaning is a chance to be grateful for our homes and our possessions, and to make every room sparkling and inviting. I don’t know when my home has been cleaner. Probably not since we moved into our house 24 years ago!

9. Harnessing technology to maintain family ties is vital to togetherness and an antidote for isolation. We are doing a Google Hangout Cocktail Hour with family members every Sunday evening. My mother, who lives in a retirement community that’s locked down, eats her dinner as my two sons – one married and living locally, the other single and living in the Bay Area – and our daughter, who is studying at UC Davis but temporarily home with us, join my husband and I in updating each other as we sip our beverage of choice.

10. AARP warns seniors like me to keep challenging ourselves intellectually. I take this to heart and try to read or watch something that challenges me to think more deeply about a complex issue. Sometimes that means just reading the daily newspaper or watching a YouTube video.

I’ve in some ways enjoyed this period of aloneness. I have been reading more good books and have discovered a few podcasts on subjects I enjoy, and I’ve curtailed all the busywork that cluttered my days. I run fewer errands and spend more time, obviously, at home.

Every night after dinner my daughter and I settle in for an episode of “The Great British Baking Show,” which we find entertains and relaxes us. These new habits, many of them enjoyable and positive, are sustaining me in what I like to call my Period of Captivity. I hope this time has been productive and positive for you in many of the same ways.