Things We’re Doing

Here are some suggestions from the St. Columba’s congregation, friends, family and others on some things we can do both for ourselves and for others – this page began during the initial shelter-in-place orders, but I hope you will still find it useful. If you have ideas to add, please comment on the blog post I have set up for this, and I can add them. When possible, please include links or other information.

Current in-person worship guidelines from the Diocese of California (last verified 10/25/22)

Reading & Spiritual Practice

  • Dedicate time each day to meditate, go for a walk, ride a bike or be out in nature
  • Spiritual education: courses on HeartMath, ChurchNext and others
  • Episcopal Cafe – great online magazine with articles across a broad spectrum of topics
  • Look up churches or congregations in your area that are doing online services and retreats, reading groups or Bible study sessions. Here are some online services from my congregation, St. Columba’s.
  • Listen to or read sermons from your favorite preachers or churches you like to attend
  • Listen to your favorite music – find podcasts, blogs, YouTube videos or other ways of learning & enjoying

Doing & Making

  • Quarantine Gardens and Urban Gardening – there are LOTS of tutorials on YouTube, instructables on Pinterest, and of course great advice from friends & others on how to get started or “troubleshoot” your garden. Some are:
  • Baking & Cooking
    • SO many options! Again, there’s plenty on YouTube, phone apps, recipe books…
    • I try to eat gluten-free and found an amazing blog called Gluten-free on a Shoestring that has great info and recipes!
  • Knitting and handcrafts
    • Knitters & crocheters should check out Ravelry if you haven’t yet – it’s an online community with patterns,blog articles, yarn, advice… You may need to sign up for a free account, and then you have access to everything.
    • You can make Prayer Shawls to donate or give away. Info on sites like Shawl Ministry, on Ravelry, on Pinterest & more. Many churches have a prayer shawl ministry – or start one!
  • Other Ideas
    • Yoga or exercise classes online
    • Zoom, WebX or Google Hangouts coffee or cocktail hours with friends or family
    • Start a book club with friends

For Others

Masks for Makers

Here are some instructables I found for making CDC-recommended sewn and no-sew cotton face masks. Please be safe and protect yourself and others by practicing social distancing, following CDC guidelines and wearing a face mask when you need to be around others.

For those who like to sew and want to contribute your time and efforts to help frontline workers, check out the 100 Million Mask Challenge and Masks for Humanity’s Zoom sew-a-thon Fridays!

ANTI-ASIAN RACISM DURING COVID-19

Good Watching

A bedtime story of how it started and why hindsight’s 2020 – by TomFoolery. A lovely and hopeful modern parable about where we might go from here. Truly touching.

 

#Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 was a program aired on all the major networks and online, to honor and share graduation with America’s 3 million high school seniors. It is beautiful and hope-filled, as was the commencement address given by former President Barack Obama at the end of the program (also posted separately on the same page).

 

My favorite new parody song about the pandemic – talk show broadcast of a music teacher’s response to sheltering in place (because humor is important).

 

Rights & Responsibilities – an opinion from Beau of the Fifth Column. A great piece on personal freedoms, community, and the need to stay put. 7 minutes.

Quarantine Collects

A collect is a short, structured prayer intended to ask God “for one thing only” by collecting elements and ideas into a single theme. These collects are being written monthly, during our Wednesday Noon Prayer services online throughout the Covid-19 shelter-in-place; hence, “Quarantine Collects.”

Click here to see the collects we’ve written to-date