It’s a Grand Life

“ June Is Busting Out All Over”

“June is Busting Out All Over” is a song from an old movie but is also appropriate for my article’s title. After months of being told to stay in and distance ourselves when going out for essentials, I am going to assume – and I know the saying about when you assume and what it makes me – that we have started to open up our state. If not, the title still works in that we are getting outdoors more with the warm, beautiful weather that June brings.

Social distancing with family and friends is much easier with the amount of space there is outside. There are games we can play without getting close to one another. Consider setting up corn hole boards, croquet, badminton, ring toss, bocce and any other games that can be set up where players can play without being close to each other. Children will love having games to play, getting exercise and enjoying the warm, sunny days.

Although there are many benefits to spending time in the sun, there are items to make sure we have on hand to protect our precious grands. It is easy to forget to put on sunscreen. Children run outside and start playing and, after an hour or more, it suddenly occurs to you that the sunscreen was never put on. There are many types of sunscreen, but one specifically for children is what to have. You can find them in spray or lotion form. This is one product where you want to buy a name brand. There have been incidents of children getting severe burns after being out in the sun with an offbrand sunscreen on. So, just a word of warning.

Along with the warmth of the summer season comes insects. Mosquitoes, bees, wasps, no-see-ums, and fire ants, to name a few, can put a damper on outside activities. Keeping insect repellent on hand will make outdoor playtime much more successful. Companies that spray for mosquitoes may be a good consideration if you plan to spend a lot of time in your yard.

If your grandchildren will be spending much of the summer with you, you may go on outings to a pool or lake. If they have not already had them, consider signing them up for a swim program. Even babies can benefit by taking lessons with a specially trained instructor. There is a reason pools are considered an attractive nuisance and require having fences around them. Children just see the fun of splashing around in the water. They don’t realize the dangers, especially if they can’t swim. It is a heartbreaking statistic of the number of drownings that occur. Research shows that contrary to opinion, a drowning person does not thrash around and call out. This is a reason that those around may not realize the person is in trouble. For extra caution, life jackets are a good option.

Now, with all the protection in place, it is time to think of all the fun summer brings. June is a wonderful month. Usually, the children are just getting out of school for the summer and are ready to go and do. This year, they have been home since March, not spending time with friends, not going on field trips. If areas are opening, this will be opportunities to visit places that the grandchildren will enjoy.

Whatever your plans, hopefully it will be able to include family. For many, quarantining from children and grandchildren has been the most difficult. May this summer be one of safety, health, and the happiness of family gatherings.

JEJ Photos

In

BY HEATHER SPIVEY AND JOANNA BRITT & About with the Signs of Hope Project in Winston-Salem

If you aren’t familiar with the Signs of Hope project in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood in Winston-Salem, then please read Joanna Britt’s story below in her own words. It’s a message “instruction” sign says, “Take one for yourself and

of hope and harmony for our community and beyond. I hope it inspires others and comforts many in this most unusual time in our lives.

I arrived home from a trip abroad with family just in time to experience North Carolina in lock-down. I spent the first few weeks of sheltering-in-place reading, meditating, listening to music, putting together jigsaw puzzles, and catching up with friends and family. But my nature screams at me to be “doing something.” As an artist, I felt like I should be painting, but there was no urging from a muse until I think I must have dreamed this sign idea. I was fortunate to have a (very giving) nephew who worked at Lowes hardware, who was willing to pick up and deliver wood for me. I had paint, I had brushes, and so it started.

Unpredictable events and circumstances bring people together to share life, even when we can’t physically embrace, and community is formed where it may not have been before. So many people walk past our house during these days! Whole families walking and biking together. It has been so much fun to watch families stop in front of our house and spend a little time choosing the sign that they’d like to put in their yard and then choosing one for their neighbor, almost a sacred experience for me. And to see children carrying them home and then see signs scattered around the neighborhood in the yards of people I don’t even know helped to fill my desperate need to feel normal again.

The need to feel normal and comfortable is very real. Even now, we are all busy. It’s not that we don’t care; it’s just that we don’t know how to do anything about the sadness that we see. This project was mine to do. I realized it was something that might matter just a bit.

One friend told me that her daughter, Marlowe, pets their sign every day as they leave the house, like it’s a dog…just as we should all nurture those kindnesses and keep them going! Another friend told me that her high school daughter, Mary Claire, had chosen “siblings” because she was so happy to have her older brother and sister home “sister” as a nod to their new baby girl, due in June, little sister to James. One bike rider grabbed “rest” as he made his way back home after a long ride.

I don’t know how far the signs are traveling, but I do know that they’re starting to show up in neighborhoods other than my own. My from college. And another neighbor chose

one for a neighbor,” and I know people are doing that, especially for neighbors that are special to them or that aren’t able to get out themselves.

As we move forward and do get back to “normal,” I hope that these signs will help people remember how to be kind to each other and slow down just a bit, how to pass along a sprinkle of hope to neighbors and friends. I hope we will embrace our new understanding of how even the smallest things might do some good in this broken world.