Today all three of our daughters returned to school after a two month corona-induced-break. It is the first actual school day at school, for all three of them, past the corona leave. May 18, 2020. A day of celebration!
A day of celebration it is indeed here in Jerusalem, for children and parents alike!
As our children resume their lives, parents can contemplate their return to their fuller lives too.
Our daughters were happy to meet their friends and their teachers alike, to get back to their studies and their lives so to speak. They were happy to dress, comb and walk out of home, to reach a classroom, and a desk at school in the old good way. To partake in a community.
Friends had started calling from early in the morning to make plans to meet on the way and walk the distance together. Excitement was in the air.
School is for children what work is for adults. A major commitment on the one hand with many responsibilities, hand in hand with being a major source of socialization, fun and mingling with peers.
During the coronavirus break from formal schooling, each of our daughters schooled herself in her own way, beyond the scheduled zoom classes they attended.
Maya chose to paint on all sorts of materials, trousers, t-shirts, scraps of cloth. As in the below.
Noa studied Greek with me in the evenings, something we had wanted to do for a long time. Seeing Maya’s creations she was inspired to draw on her jeans too. Enjoy an illustration below.
Eden, our youngest, babysat for a part of this season helping family friends juggle between mothering and working from home.
While at home, our daughters watched films for hours, together and separately. They cooked meals and cakes together and exercised together each night past our bed time. A new sisterly bond was created.
They went to sleep late, woke up late, and enjoyed being on the edge between going to zoom-school, doing homework and doing their thing.
Today we slowly come out of this phase, of sheltering and nesting. Once more we are asked to step out of the known, the familiar, and secure space of the home. Back out again, in the public sphere, we start shedding the skin of protection we had all grown. With a renewed skin, with pores opening up to partake in the public, yet again. However, we still wear masks in the public sphere, covering up our facial characteristics.
Hopefully, soon, a time will come when we will be able to feel again fully secure in the public domain. Able to laugh, and smile, unhindered from the discomfort of the mask. A time when we will be able to open up again our homes to our family and friends, socialize, and enjoy each other’s company with our faces revealed.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas