Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely

Team Biggs' wheels are about to fall off. We went straight from a staggered round of a stomach bug into simultaneous colds of varying intensities. One of the few positive sides to being sick is the family movie cuddle. This morning we watched Disney's new movie Turning Red. The mom in me loved the introduction to big emotions in a comical way. The late 90/2000s teenager in me loved the boy band references (hence the Backstreet Boys' song title). 

One of the other silver linings of sick kids is the time to let my mind wander while snuggling one of their coughing little bodies. This morning I had one of my best ideas of the year. Mariia, one of the teenagers who stayed with us, is a great artist. There is an art school head by a Russian artist down the street from us which offers classes during Easter break. Paul's coworkers generously pooled 1000 Euros for us to support our Ukrainian community. And Boom, more of this is going to be happening in the world.

Sketch by Mariia

The other mom who came to stay with us wrote to me that her pre-teen daughter is having the hardest time - mostly missing her friends. Loneliness is a much harder problem to solve. While this pandemic has been rough (not to mention this war), my hope is that maybe through it all we learn some better coping skills for loneliness. The first of the Sonic series dealt with a very lonely hedgehog, maybe this next long awaited sequel will also provide some good life lessons...