While the pandemic brought on sadness and grief, I know there were also moments of joy to be found. I was a fortunate part of the workforce, even if it didn’t always feel that way: employees mandated to work at home in the wee hours of COVID’s arrival in Oregon. My employer then, a different healthcare institution than where I am now, understood nonessential employees would only be in the way in a hospital campus where providers and caregivers were struggling to keep up with safe procedures and patient loads. It was the first time I’d been called nonessential, but I got it. Many of us slowly and sometimes painfully became somewhat adept using virtual platforms like Teams and Zoom and WebEx, although even today we joke about how we’ve still not perfected it. Some days I felt lonely in my changed workscape, but that was nothing like the sorrow I felt during the lock down phase at Mom’s living facility.

It quickly became obvious as I worked in my front-of-the-house dining room-turned-office: our neighborhood kids were out and about! With schools now meeting virtually, I saw and heard kids during normally quiet weekdays. I noticed in particular, a family with two kids new to our neighborhood. Living here for more than three decades, I’m grateful for our welcoming neighborhood. In the past few years our street has turned over, now with six households of younger kids. We love it and we often reminisce to our first moments here with our oldest at only 12 months old. In the years since, I did not yet have a grandchild and spent my “love kids” energy on those nearby.

Now, to continue this story, you my trusted blog followers must swear to secrecy.

Over the next year we became friends with these two kids and their parents; the kids then in preschool and first grade. They walked regularly and if I happened to hear them head up or down the hill or to check the communal mailbox near our yard I would dash outside if I could: eager for this joyous break. In those days we kept our distance from each other and it was a long time before we shared inside spaces. But spring had arrived and we were moving into summer, so it worked. Summer continued into fall, and we posed together in costumes Halloween night, the day Mom moved in with us. She was already asleep by the time trick-or-treaters appeared.

Occasionally, my young friends joined me on the porch for tea and an occasional cookie. Honestly, they brought me laughs and joy on days it was hard to find elsewhere. Part of my job at that time was working on specific COVID workforce projects. I wasn’t doing the face-to-face teaching or attending conferences that I had come to love, and I worried about when I would actually get to see my mom in person in those earliest months; long before I knew we’d decide to move her into our home.

Two weeks after Mom died in March 2021, I walked by my neighbors’ yard. Their owl and hawk garden figures caught my eye. And that was the beginning of Bunny. Like most of us, I had become adept at online ordering, and excitedly viewed my options. Late one night when I was certain the kids would be in bed, Bunny made his appearance in their yard. Three years later, he’s still there but has been moved to a number of different spots by the kids. Bunny spent time getting to know hawk and owl along with other parts of the yard. I’m not sure how long after he appeared that I began writing Bunny notes. Bunny had many things to tell these kids! Like how he couldn’t wait until their garden had lettuce and carrots for him to eat, and how he and his best bunny friend loved to go up to a nearby park and eat ripe blackberries. More recently, Bunny wrote that he has many new bunny friends on his street (truth as demonstrated in my vegetable garden!), and his newest friend Fluffy likes to go with him to the Park and enjoy the water feature.

After the first or second note from Bunny, the kids began to leave their own notes for Bunny. I learned to be stealthy in my late night visits, even crouching in the shadows, as I retrieved and released notes. Some of the notes from our friends asked Bunny questions, which Bunny enjoyed answering in future replies. Bunny had a bit of a lapse this winter, but his recent note was quickly spotted by the older sibling, now an incoming fourth grader. I was told by my “sworn to secrecy” insider that a reply to Bunny is forthcoming.

Guess it’s time for me to take a later night stealth darkness walk. Oh, the magic of simple delights. What magic have you found, even in darkness?