Sadness at the A to Z

Blogging from A to Z is a blogging event I participate in each April.

Participants start with the letter A on April 1, the letter B on April 2, and end up with Z.  On "A" day your post must be about a topic that begins with the letter day, then "B" on "B" day, and...well, you get the idea.  You post every day in April except Sundays, and if you subtract Sundays from April you come up with 26 days of blogging.  26 letters.

It isn't easy, but it sure is fun.  Here is an excellent explanation of how it works, from someone who has been doing A to Z since 2012.

Many bloggers choose themes, and part of the fun is going to blogs you haven't read before, reading their offerings, and making new blogging friends.  In fact, you are encouraged to visit as many blogs as you can both during April, and (optional) during the rest of the year.

So, when sadness strikes, it's a special sadness.

I started doing A to Z's in 2015 and have done it every year since.  My themes tend to be centered around my domestic travels (minimal since January of 2020), my photos, or both.

But my thoughts have been elsewhere all winter, and it wasn't on my radar.  At all.  

Every winter I go blank for a while.  Sure, I'm here physically but suddenly I wake up one day and feel like I've lost several weeks.

I've woken up from that mid winter mental nap now and I'm starting to get that "A to Z" itch. You'll know what I've decided on March 7, when the theme reveal starts.

Yesterday, I went to the A to Z website and, to my sorrow, discovered that the graphics designer for A to Z, Jeremy, passed away January 3 from COVID-19.  February 2 was to be a tribute day.  That day, of course has passed, but it's obvious that Jeremy was loved by many, and will be missed.

But I can still offer a virtual flower.  I didn't know Jeremy, but I do know people who have lost loved ones to COVID.  Too many of us have lost family members or friends to this plague which continues to divide us, and worse.

This is a kalanchoe flower with a special backstory.

Back in 2018, my mother law had to be taken to the ER several times.  Her health conditions, at age 90, were gettig worse.  She was hospitalized, sent to rehab in a nursing home and eventually entered the nursing home proper.

This kalanchoe was a gift from us, and after her death in late November, 2018, we took it home.  It never bloomed after its initial bloom when we gave it to her.  Earlier this winter, I repotted it.

Sunday, it bloomed.  Just one flower bud, but it's a start.  Maybe it's a sign of hope, too.

I sometimes wonder at the paths each of us would have taken without the pandemic.  Millions of people alive in 2020 would still be alive today, and others of us would have taken different paths in life.

I found a poem yesterday that may not be speaking of COVID, but it spoke to me.

Sadness at the A to Z.  Sadness in the world.

But also hope, as my last amaryllis flower blooms.