Rhia's Kitchen : Feel Good Friday: "All Together Now."

As the reality of Covid-19 is now the new normal, we at Simply Recipes are looking for brief respites from the anxiety and uncertainty that threatens to overwhelm. We need life-affirming reminders of the power of hope, humor, and humanity in the midst of this crisis, and we're guessing you do, too! Welcome to Week 9 of the Feel Good Friday newsletter, wherein I share some of the more cheering or compelling things I've read or watched this week. Have anything you'd like to share? Email me at cambria[at]simplyrecipes.com with the title "Feel Good Friday." Thanks for being a part of our community! What I Loved This Week:

This brought me a little joy.
Do you love Hamilton? Never seen it and finally want to know what the fuss is all about? A filmed version of the musical with its original cast is coming to Disney + on July 3!
A touching gift from students to their teachers.
"Care Package: Poems, meditations, films, and other cultural nutrients for times like this." A wonderful collection curated by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Love the term cultural nutrients, too.
Umbrella is a service dedicated to coordinating deliveries, errands, and tasks for seniors - although now, during the Covid-19 crisis, they're focusing on delivering essentials like food, medicine, and supplies. What an amazing organization! They have volunteering jobs available around the US right now.
The egg wizard is such a creative project.
And finally: The leader singer of OK GO, Damian Kulash, and his bandmates, working separately in their homes, wrote and recorded a new song, All Together Now. He and his wife and kids all got Covid-19. They recovered, thankfully, but it was life-altering. He writes:

When the status quo evaporates, anything is possible, for better or for worse. Crises are when we learn who we are. Without our frame of reference, we reinvent ourselves. Our best and worst impulses struggle against each other anew, and while our darkest fears become more real, so do our wildest hopes. 'Change is not only possible, we are swept away by it.' ... My neighborhood, like many around the world, raises a cheer for frontline workers every evening. The ritual is more than just a show of gratitude, it's a vehicle for the kind of hope [historian Rebecca] Solnit writes of, the subtle feeling I was trying to pin down. We're telling each other we believe in one another. We're reassuring ourselves that human goodness is rugged, that our capacity to care for each other is less fragile than our individual bodies, that we can choose compassion for others over the comfort of our routines. The idea that some good may come from this time of overwhelming tragedy is a light in the dark right now. We're not delusional; we don't think optimism or compassion alone will get us through this tragic pandemic, nor do we think the better angels of our nature are predestined to be victorious. But as we wrestle with anxiety, every drop of hope is precious. We want to nurture it and share it.

Read his whole letter, and listen and watch the video here. Wishing you a healthy, hopeful weekend. -Cambria Product and Lifestyle Director

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Feel Good Friday: “All Together Now.”

Welcome to Week 9 of the Feel Good Friday newsletter, wherein I share some of the more cheering or compelling things I’ve read or watched this week.

Have anything you’d like to share? Email me at cambria[at]simplyrecipes.com with the title “Feel Good Friday.” Thanks for being a part of our community!

What I Loved This Week:

This brought me a little joy.
Do you love Hamilton? Never seen it and finally want to know what the fuss is all about? A filmed version of the musical with its original cast is coming to Disney + on July 3!
A touching gift from students to their teachers.
“Care Package: Poems, meditations, films, and other cultural nutrients for times like this.” A wonderful collection curated by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Love the term cultural nutrients, too.
Umbrella is a service dedicated to coordinating deliveries, errands, and tasks for seniors – although now, during the Covid-19 crisis, they’re focusing on delivering essentials like food, medicine, and supplies. What an amazing organization! They have volunteering jobs available around the US right now.
The egg wizard is such a creative project.
And finally: The leader singer of OK GO, Damian Kulash, and his bandmates, working separately in their homes, wrote and recorded a new song, All Together Now. He and his wife and kids all got Covid-19. They recovered, thankfully, but it was life-altering. He writes:

When the status quo evaporates, anything is possible, for better or for worse. Crises are when we learn who we are. Without our frame of reference, we reinvent ourselves. Our best and worst impulses struggle against each other anew, and while our darkest fears become more real, so do our wildest hopes. ‘Change is not only possible, we are swept away by it.’

… My neighborhood, like many around the world, raises a cheer for frontline workers every evening. The ritual is more than just a show of gratitude, it's a vehicle for the kind of hope [historian Rebecca] Solnit writes of, the subtle feeling I was trying to pin down. We're telling each other we believe in one another. We're reassuring ourselves that human goodness is rugged, that our capacity to care for each other is less fragile than our individual bodies, that we can choose compassion for others over the comfort of our routines.

The idea that some good may come from this time of overwhelming tragedy is a light in the dark right now. We're not delusional; we don't think optimism or compassion alone will get us through this tragic pandemic, nor do we think the better angels of our nature are predestined to be victorious. But as we wrestle with anxiety, every drop of hope is precious. We want to nurture it and share it.

Read his whole letter, and listen and watch the video here.

Wishing you a healthy, hopeful weekend.

-Cambria
Product and Lifestyle Director