In a Zoom interview last month, someone asked how to do Love Where You Live experiments right now. Weirdly, a lot of the originals from This Is Where You Belong still work—and we're already doing a lot of them, like:
- Finding sanity in daily walks.
- Consciously supporting small businesses.
- Talking a bit more with neighbors.
- Glorying in nature (which happens to be thriving).
- Donating to good causes.
- Ordering takeout from local restaurants that we want to survive.
- Tuning into Zoom town council meetings.
- Creating our own fun (like these Ministry of Silly Walks signs).
- Being grateful for where we live.
A lot about right now sucks, but it's a decent crash course in building resilient communities. So there's that.
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7 items of interest
- Movie theater marquees are the old-school form of communication we need right now (and I'm especially chuffed that my beloved Lyric is featured in this story).
- When your neighbors become wedding guests.
- "They’re a kind of re-localisation, of coming back to the places that are spatially closest to us, yet easily taken for granted." Why chalk drawings and teddy bears in windows matter.
- Turning social distancing into "sociable distancing"—on a porch, for instance.
- Reclaiming NYC during COVID-19: "We are a city of congregators. We are so used to being jammed up against one another, so thrilled and challenged and comforted by it that maintaining social distancing requires the mental vigilance of giving up an addiction."
- We need more people playing instruments in the street, please.
- How to move—and say goodbye—during a pandemic.
xoxo, Melody
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P.S.—As always, random bonus material for reading this far: This is even more hilarious with the sound on. What you should know about work and life at every age. Good questions to ask when you're anxious. Favorite shameful pandemic binge watches here and here. I've also done about twenty of these. I am counting down the days! Here's my friend's new book that I'm so excited about. If you're carbing up, I heartily endorse this recipe (and all her recipes, actually). This is the closest I'm getting to my dream vacation for a while (but seriously, watch, it's like normal life). When I reminded my kids of this adorable video we went down a Muppet rabbit hole that ended here, and I can't say I regret it.
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