As this pandemic drags on, the memories of what is “normal” can begin to fade. For my (Nadine’s) personal mental health, I try to do what I can do to have things be as close to pre-pandemic as I can. For example, I belong to a book group that has 9 women. Last week it was my turn to host them for a night of socializing, snacks and book discussion. If they were all to come to my house, I would prepare a spread of snacks that took into consideration the group’s preferences and allergies. My hosting of book group last week was online to keep everyone safe from the virus so I created a snack box for each of them and delivered them to their doorsteps. It felt normal to me to prepare food so getting some inexpensive snack boxes seemed to make sense.

The reaction that I got was not exactly what I expected. This seemingly small token was received with much excitement. Some of the reactions were:

“I haven’t been this excited in a year!”
“What a great surprise!”
And even “goody goody goody goody gum drops!”

They LOVED these little snack boxes. The food within was nothing particularly special. What mattered was that someone prepared snacks on book group night. The excitement was in the symbol of normalcy.