As I write this post, it’s early July and incredibly warm—not a fan of 39 degree days!  I have no idea where we’ll be by the end of July when this blog is scheduled to be posted.  My hope is that we will be farther along in opening back up, as more of us are fully vaccinated, case numbers are down and fewer of our loved ones are in the hospital battling Covid.

No matter what your temperature :-), here are the interesting ideas links for this month.

The pandemic has changed the way that we hold funeral services (or even if we do) and how we celebrate our loved ones who have died.  This Guardian article tells the poignant story of one woman’s 150-mile walking journey along the Thames River from London to Oxford to visit her brother’s grave and the realizations that she had along the way.

The following two items; an article from the Atlantic and a post from the blog Food52, help us to maneuver as we work our way through post-pandemic social norms around what is now considered to be polite when interacting with others and how to host gatherings. What is the expectations around physical contact? Distancing? How do you have explicit conversations about who is being invited and what the ground rules will be? I especially like the use of compassion in these areas as everyone is at a different place in their re-entry journey. Being around others can bring both a profound sense of relief and its own emotional hurdles and compassion can help us navigate it.