Wow, it’s been over two months. It’s so very hard to believe. There are stirrings outside my door of reawakening. My state and county and workplace are all making plans for thoughtful, careful reopening. It is a little scary, I must admit.

My cocoon these past months has been a protective bubble of rejuvenating solitude. I’m not in a hurry to leave it. But as with so many things, life does go on. I’ll be looking for ways to keep some of the feeling of protection this unexpected solitude has given me.

One habit I intend to continue, learned in quarantine and which I will carry with me out into the world, is looking for the good news, the helpers among us, to paraphrase Mr. Rogers, the points of light. And paying attention to the things that make me Smile.

It reminds me of Buddy the Elf’s saying: “I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.”

I think it really is now.

Here again is a list of things that made me smile this week. I hope they make you smile, too.

The Real Life Story of The Lord of the Flies

This is an amazing Story, which I saw in The Guardian: The Real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked on 15 months.

Go read this story. In the book written by William Golding in the 1960s, the tale is a horrendous story and one which many believed to be a depiction of man’s true nature. We accepted the book’s theme that man is deeply flawed and we’re all really savages. And while there is no shortage of true-life examples of that belief, it is not a complete truth. Man is not only savage.

Man is also capable of great strength and courage and cooperation. For example, when six boys in the Polynesian islands were stranded on an island and thought drowned, instead of turning on each other, they pulled together, worked together, and survived until their rescue.

Talk about resilience.

And I now have a book that has jumped to the top of my TBR list. This story appears in Rutger Bregman’s new book Humankind: A Hopeful History.

Mark Shaeffer’s inspiring business stories

Among other good news, I really appreciate that Mark Schaefer recently included a list of stories illustrating business and economic ingenuity and resilience. Job insecurity has become very real very quickly for a great many people and we know the unemployment numbers. There is still a lot of uncertainty in front of us.

But as with so many other situations, it is not all doom and gloom and his list of “businesses rising up to meet the needs of the coronavirus crisis in inspiring ways” is worth a read.

I’d sign up for an email newsletter of just good business news. Wouldn’t you?

Invitation to contribute to a blog round up

I was invited to contribute to a blog post on tips for getting through quarantine. Valerie at Wellness and Wanderlust gathered together 14 tips from a range of bloggers on getting through quarantine.

New to long-term working from home and all of the adjustments that go with that blessing, I thought I would share a tip I learned that I’ve found helpful. Check it out!

Being closer to nature

We’ve all heard stories of animals emerging more now that there aren’t so many humans careening about the place. I’ve seen that, too. During a recent walk-run, a deer crossed the street and sidewalk just yards in front of me and another young woman. We were far from careening – I was doing a slow jog and she was slowly biking. We both stopped in admiration to gaze after the deer.

In another animal sighting, I was spending a leisurely afternoon reading on my patio last weekend when I realized a cardinal kept swooping out from the stairwell near my patio. He did it all afternoon, heading to a nearby crepe myrtle. Thinking it was a one-day occurrence, I was pleasantly surprised on the next workday when I was eating lunch on the patio and the same cardinal repeated his swoops.

He’s been doing it all week and today I noticed him sitting in the half courtyard near the stairwell singing away and hopping among the holly bushes.

Seeing these lovely creatures can’t help but bring a smile to my face.

My new handmade face masks

In preparation for when I do start getting out and about, I looked up some video tutorials on making masks at home.

While I’m tempted to buy something fun from Disney, I do have all the stuff needed to make masks. And some time.

I like to sew but not super fancy stuff. I like to sew the same way I cook. Loosely measuring things, adding in a bit of this or that, substituting things when I feel like it. You can get away with that when cooking. It doesn’t work quite as well with sewing.

I don’t like dealing with facings and linings and finishing seams. So, while I found some pretty nifty looking patterns, I ended up following this one for my first two masks.

I can tie this mask behind my head as she does in the video. It is comfortable for my ears, but it pulls at my hair, so I tied the ties around my ears, instead. This is still comfortable and doesn’t get caught up in my hair. Plus, the ties hang down and look a little bit like dangly earrings.

Gerald King of the Rock 

I may have found my new favorite Disney character. There are so many to choose from! But when a photo of Gerald as King of the Rock popped into my Pinterest feed, I was hooked. His face looks so goofily happy that I couldn’t stop smiling. And every time I look at him, I smile.

In case, like me, you haven’t seen Finding Dory, which is where we meet Gerald, then here’s a collection of his appearances in the movie. Sadly, he only has about 90 seconds of screen time.

If Disney Pixar made a new short or a whole movie about Gerald, I’d watch it!

And if you’re really into scriptwriting and storytelling (and want to know what Gerald and Luna Lovegood have in common), you can find a quick interesting explanation of Gerald’s place in the story of Finding Dory by Ben at Super Carlin Brothers.

Captain Marvel HISHE

HISHE stands for How It Should Have Ended, a channel on YouTube. The team at HISHE create short cartoon spoofs showing alternate endings of major movies. Generally these are based on plot holes or injecting reality into actions a key character does or doesn’t take.  

Mostly they love the movies and their send-ups are their way of showing their appreciation.

I’ve seen the HISHE Captain Marvel video before, so I knew it would make me smile. Especially the end. Watching it again is fun.

Looking over the things that made me smile this week, it becomes apparent that sometimes a smile appears out of nowhere.

A deer or cardinal crosses your path. An email in your inbox shares inspiring stories. Or an item in your newsfeed highlights something positive or makes you smile.

And if we need a smile, we don’t have to wait for it, either. We can go find something to make us smile. We can create something or do meaningful work. Or we can appreciate the creative acts of others.

There are smiles all around us.

What about you? Did you see anything that made you smile this week? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.