COVID-19 has changed life as we know it and brought with it worry, confusion, sacrifice, loss, and grief. However, our individual and communal responses to this challenging time have also brought positive changes, innovations, and new learning opportunities. We are not trying to diminish the negative impact COVID has had on families, businesses, and our daily lives, but we believe we can call these changes “COVID Blessings.”
The Tiffin-Seneca Public Library would like to encourage our community to reflect on the positive things that have come out of this pandemic and share their COVID Blessings. All of your submissions will be compiled and posted in a blog on the Library website, and some may be displayed in the library and on social media. Your submission can be anonymous or you can include as much information as you would like shared (full name, first name only, initials, age).
COVID Blessings come in a variety of forms. We’ve seen this at the Library, and I have seen this personally. Maybe you learned a new skill, took up a hobby, or finally found time to tackle things on your to-do list. Over the last several months we have seen pictures of people baking in the kitchen, starting gardens, and creating art projects. Even though this has been a chaotic time, schools and businesses have adapted beneficial practices they can use in the future. Without being able to go anywhere, maybe your family finally had time to sit down and eat a meal together. Perhaps you reconnected with old friends in faraway places by meeting on Zoom.
If your neighborhood is anything like mine, you saw people venturing outdoors. They went on walks around town and explored local parks and nature preserves. I have lived in my home for six years, but I didn’t really meet any of my neighbors until I was out on my socially-distanced daily walks. I learned what vegetables they were growing in their gardens (one neighbor has a lemon tree!), and I watched them conduct science experiments in their driveways (so maybe that was a little dangerous...).
I am proud to say I learned how to cook a turkey all by myself – it may not have looked pretty, but it tasted delicious! I washed the walls in my house and tackled a pile of mending I had been avoiding for months. My nephew spent a lot of time mastering back flips and headstands and sent me a video to prove it. My niece wrote a book and read it to me over the phone. I was able to watch many of my favorite best-selling authors give free talks and interviews online. Thanks to technology, I attended online meetings with librarians from all across the state – meetings I never would have been able to go to in person. In fact, the idea to share our COVID Blessings emerged from two of those meetings.
Now, all we need you to do is share your COVID Blessings – write a short description or share a photo. You can do this on your own, as a family, or a group. Teachers and students, nursing home residents, clubs and organizations – we want to hear from you. Ask your co-workers or roommates to compile their COVID Blessings and send them our way. We can’t wait to share them with the entire community.
There are a number of ways to submit your blessings. You can drop them off at the Library or mail them to 77 Jefferson St. Tiffin, OH 44883. You can send an email to programming@tiffinsenecalibrary.org, or comment on our Facebook post. Visit the COVID Blessings blog at www.tiffinsenecalibrary.org/covid-blessings to read what others have shared or find inspiration for your own blessings. For more information, please call 419-447-3751.
Sharing our COVID Blessings is an opportunity to remind us of the things in our lives that we can be thankful for and a way to keep our community connected at a time when we are physically apart. The Library appreciates your help in making this possible.
Trinity Lescallett, Adult Programming Manager
