I LOVE lemonade so when there are lemons coming our way, guess what….

This summer began with questions, puzzled looks, disappointed faces, tears, and so forth given that summer camps were closed, overnight camp experiences cancelled and parents are working from home, kids are addicted to their screens even more so given that this is how they were going to school and in general, what WERE WE GOING TO DO? For adults, we were upset that plans had to be cancelled – we were supposed to be in Rome for an international conference in June and there was a possibility I and my daughter and her family would be in Israel for July. Obviously none of this happened.

One of the things that struck me in the beginning of this Covid 19 Odyssey was a lovely piece some clever person created that showed a parent and their child in the year 2030. The parent asked the child who was in his later teenage years what he remembered from 2020. He could not remember at first. Then the parent began … “I had to work from home, you guys went to school from home, we were all in self-isolation, parks were closed, no entertainment spots to go to, we could not get out of the house, etc. etc. It was just so frustrating.” Then the child thinks and says, “Oh right, now I remember, that was the BEST year of my childhood. We had dinner together every night, dad and I played ball in the yard, we played board games and laughed as a family, enjoyed our home, and it was just great. BEST YEAR EVER!”

So, for my summer of 2020, I continued to work. Always, meetings, classes I teach, programs I run, etal. were on the screen, and at the same time I took the moment and made lemonade… that is, we hatched up this idea of Machaneh (Camp) Savta for two nine year olds and a six year old and a three year old as well, when she could detach from her mommy and daddy’s arm or leg for a while. We spent a lot of time in the pool, used imagination in playing with a toy village, read and completed summer school packets, the six year old went to a virtual camp for a few hours in the morning resulting in several house scavenger hunts, we all dovened (prayed) and learned the weekly Torah portion together, completed art projects, learned sewing skills and made skirts, learned about some of the issues swirling around us in our world on an age appropriate level, cooked dinners, just hung out, played games, took walks, etc.

It was really quite lovely, if somewhat complicated at time keeping all of the balls in the air at once. I know these wonderful members of the newest generation of our family will tell stories about our experiences and also about our unplanned experiences, like the ceiling collapsing in their bedroom due to a huge mistake made by an air conditioning service person, a flooding of my downstairs office and crafts room due to faulty covering of one of our window wells, and the lovely power outage that left us in the dark telling ghost stories. But through it all, we laughed, were busy and happy and in the end, it really was a lovely summer experience in every way.

We are the fortunate ones! We could do all of this and come up with a wonderful and satisfying Plan B for our kids. I hope that for all of us who are able to do so, this will be our approach. This time does absolutely present some different and wonderful opportunities, if we are paying attention. You know that saying -- “Life happens while you are making plans.”

So what else will I take from this time? I make sure to phone friends regularly as much as possible to stay in touch. I’ve even used the moment to reconnect with college roommates and my best friend from childhood thanks to my very busy ZoomRoom. My wonderful husband Ken has taken up reading books, which I enjoy as well so we do more of that. We are appreciative of the comfort and resources we have to make this time meaningful. It is a slower pace generally and our world has gotten a bit smaller, but we are grateful for so much and I am especially thankful that we have all had the good sense to use the opportunity of this moment instead of mourning what we can’t do. Oh and right, for my husband and children and all who care – GO PHILLIES with your cardboard fans, FLYERS, and SIXERS with your onscreen fans! Be well all, stay safe, and make this time as special as possible. Now it’s time for that cool glass of lemonade!