I’m honored to have my perspective - as a mother, and grandmother, and physician - included in this article in this month’s Hadassah magazine by journalist Debra Nussbaum Cohen.

“At the same time, Covid has completely altered what it means to be a physician. “I was known as the doctor who would spend more time with patients and hear them deeply,” says Dr. Fischer, who works at an urgent care clinic. “Now I go to work wearing a face respirator, a shield over it, a bonnet and isolation gowns and gloves. We try to minimize our time in each room. Now people can barely hear you, they can’t see your face. It interferes with communication, you’re muffled through all those layers, and there is fear in these interactions.”

And there is grief over the losses—personal, professional and economic—that Dr. Fischer believes people will struggle with for a long time. “We’ve all lost really significant things. Relationships. Prom.” She says she will have to come to terms with not being able to hug her grandchildren, the children of her adult stepchildren, and not being able to hug her patients and staff. “When you don’t see your new baby grandkids for a whole year, you don’t get that back. Life won’t go back to the same kind of normal.”

In the words of one of my wise therapist colleagues, “If you can’t give yourself some grace when you are in a shut down state, when can you?”

It is so important to know and acknowledge those days of really low energy and honor them. They are ok. I know I will wake up on another day with more activated energy, more resolve, and more motivation.

What tools do you need to get through a winter? To walk or drive safely on treacherous surfaces, and then to shelter safely? What do you need to survive winter?

Warm clothing…snow tires…boots,crampons/skis/snowshoes, walking poles. Salt for the sidewalks. Shelter, firewood, good books (or Netflix) for long evenings.

Feather your own nest with the tools you will need. Most of us know the ritual of winter preparations. Feather your nest.

And then, think; what tools do you need to survive times of stress and loss, to walk across the surface of anxiety and grief without sinking to your waist?

How do you find the sense of holiness and celebration to a holiday in a time of social distancing and Zoom? Thinking about creating your own menu of choices based on your values around holidays allows room to envision a day that is meaningful and relevant based on your own values.