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pandemic

Dispatches from Babyville: Stop and Smell the Flowers

July 22, 2021 By Nicole Kear Filed Under: Community, Dispatches From Babyville Tagged With: Dispatches from Babyville, flowers, pandemic

Artwork by Heather Heckel

I have never been the kind of person who knows the names of flowers. I couldn’t tell a hydrangea from a hyacinth if my life depended on it. My main interest in flowers has been in their utility as metaphors. Until the pandemic.

Now, very much to my surprise, I find that I am interested in things that bloom. When I spot a flower, I have the urge to identify it, learn its name, admire its colors and contours. More than anything, I like to stop and smell the flowers. Literally. Incessantly. I have trespassed in people’s front yards to get a sniff. I have stopped sidewalk traffic. 

When, I ask you, did the flowers of Brooklyn get so resplendent?

Have you smelled a lilac lately? I mean, deeply drank in its aroma? I can’t recommend it enough. It will renew you.”

I’m not the only one who’s noticed. At the start of spring, my Facebook feed was flooded with flower posts. In lieu of their children’s faces, my friends marveled at the loveliness of lilies, daffodils and, most notably, tulips. 

Oh, the tulips. 

We — hardened, jaded, New-York-tough city dwellers — lost our minds over the tulips this year.

I lack the poet’s tongue to wax sufficiently rhapsodic over flowers. I’m no Longfellow. But back in March, I was walking my 9-year-old to school in the morning, down the same street we always walk down, past the grays and browns and blacks that make up a sidewalk landscape, and suddenly, there was a burst of yellow. Bold. Brillant. Defiant. Three or four sunshine tulips, in a tree bed, their petals beginning to flare. 

The tulips were impossible to ignore. You simply could not walk past them. 

“Good morning!” they greeted us. 

“Have a wonderful day at school!” they cried.

“If the last few months of this apocalyptic winter of our discontent have left you despairing and contemplating the possibility that all joy and beauty and hope have been extinguished,” they said. “Despair no longer! For we, tulips, have nevertheless persisted! Joy and hope and beauty have persisted! You, too, have persisted! So, crack a smile!” 

They were loquacious suckers.

At first, it was just a few tulips here and there, peppering the neighborhood. But every day, they proliferated. Soon, their lovely, vibrant heads – orange, yellow, red– were popping out of the earth in every front yard, every tree bed, every planter. 

My favorite were the two-toned tulips, with stunning magenta petals, edged in yellow. They looked like sunsets. I defy you to walk down a quiet Park Slope side street on a sunny afternoon, encounter a sunset tulip and not be suffused with the exquisite glory of living.

I have become a flower lover. It is an unlikely turn of events. What can I say? Life is surprising. 

To celebrate my anniversary in April, my husband and I spent an afternoon at the Met, which marked our joyful return to museum-going. Crossing Park Avenue on our way home, I found myself approaching a congregation of tulips the likes of which I’d never known. In fact, this is untrue. I’d seen these tulips every year, because they are always there, on the island separating the northbound traffic of Park from the southbound. But this year, they stopped me in my tracks. 

An unimaginable abundance of tulips — hundreds of them — lined up in neat rows, like little soldiers of good cheer, waving in the breeze. 

“Oh my God,” I said to my husband. “They’re magnificent.” 

“I know,” he agreed. 

I turned to him and snorted. “And people said New York was dead.” Only I didn’t use the word “people.” I used a noun not suitable for print, an expletive almost as colorful as the tulips. 

It takes a dark, cold winter to appreciate the spring. And the winter that just passed – it was a doozie. It was so unremitting in its bleakness that more than once, strangers confessed to me their inability to bear it all while waiting for elevators and for the light to change and on line in bodegas. After all of that fear and despair and the barren, terrible cold, finally there was light and new life and color and hope. Finally there were tulips. 

As spring blooms to summer, the tulips have cast their petals to the ground, but there are other flowers appearing. Already, the lilacs are blooming. 

Have you smelled a lilac lately? I mean, deeply drank in its aroma? I can’t recommend it enough. It will renew you. 

But you don’t have to take it from me. Listen to Walt Whitman, father of free verse, the quintessential Brooklyn poet. This is from “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,” a poem which is about loss and beauty and continuing on:

“In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.”

Every leaf a miracle. 

Indeed.

Filed Under: Community, Dispatches From Babyville Tagged With: Dispatches from Babyville, flowers, pandemic

Park Slope Puppy Boom: How Our Pets are Helping Us Cope

January 29, 2021 By Sofia Pipolo Filed Under: Bark Slope, Feature, Pandemic Diaries Tagged With: pandemic, pets, sofia pipolo

The overall mental health and wellbeing of our neighborhood (and entire planet) has shifted due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. With new stresses, a global financial crisis, and loved ones lost, there is much that can’t be replaced. Through it all, many of us have found solace in our new and old pets. Because individuals and families are spending more time at home than ever before, Park Slope has seen a “Puppy Boom.”

The Kingham family (Stuart, Roz, and 10-year-old Isla) rescued German-Shepard mix Macy to help uplift their spirits. While reluctant before Covid, Roz knew that getting a dog would give them something positive to focus on after Isla kept mentioning her experience with remote learning as “lonely.” Stuart reflected on his increased stress from all-day screen time, working from home, and worrying about the health and safety of his family, as a kind of low-grade PTSD. He reflects, “Everything was a worry, even going to stores.”

Though housetraining Macy was a challenge, they agree it has far outweighed the stresses of the outside world as the Kingham family saw their commitment to the new canine family member pay off. Over 2 months later, Macy is already growing up alongside Isla. Taking the time to step away from their screens and heavy workload, the endless news cycle, and the grief of pandemic losses to take care of puppy Macy has made Staut, Roz, and Isla feel a bit safer and happier.

Isla Kingham with her rescue puppy “Macy”

They train her together and connect with other dog-owners in the neighborhood. Roz says, “There’s definitely a dog community in Park Slope so just making that human connection on walks with other dog owners has been nice; everyone stops to talk when you have a puppy!” Their new routine includes early morning off-leash play in the park, after-school walks, and evenings spent on the front stoop where they sit to watch the world go by.

You’ll find many families enjoying similar daily pet pleasures. Park Slope has 10 dog parks, including the Prospect Park Dog Beach, making it an amazing community for pet owners. Pets, especially dogs and cats, are known to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, to ease loneliness and encourage exercise and playfulness. They also help children to grow up more secure and active, and provide valuable companionship for older adults.

These days everyone needs some extra stability, joy, and positive coping methods, one reason why pet adoption and sales have been through the roof this past year. Even veteran pet owners have become more appreciative and formed closer bonds with their furry friends. 

For example, the pandemic has heightened Park Slope resident, Ingrid’s anxiety; making her less motivated to deal with tasks beyond short term consideration. Ingrid said, “ Much of the structure I’ve built into my life over the years vanished overnight, along with any sense of what the future could or should look like.”  Her two cats, Cabiria aka Cabbie and Jean Harlow whom she’s had for over 3-years, have brought extra companionship and cuddles during these uncertain months of quarantining at home. “Taking care of the cats provide some structure to the days, and requires me to think about something other than myself… So I actually have something to discuss with friends or co-workers that isn’t horrible pandemic news or politics.” She’s found exchanging silly cat photos and having Cabbie and Jean meow over speakerphone a sure-fire way to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Giselle with her partner and their rescue puppy “Pico”

Similarly, the unforeseeable future had spiked Diana Kane’s anxiety, so after some discussion adopting a dog felt like the right decision. And it was! Her family’s new 4-month-old rescue from Puerto Rico, Appa (named after the flying-bison from Avatar: The Last Airbender), has been a blessing for their mental and physical health. Diana and her family has been able to find peace and joy. She said, “I think Disney has it wrong: the Happiest Place on Earth is actually off-leash in Prospect Park.”

Giselle Navarro and her partner adopted a Jindo mix named Pico just before the city shut down. While worrying about their health and safety and only communicating with others through screens, they felt lucky to have Pico by their side. By structuring their quarantine days around the new puppy, their new routine for the new normal provides time to safely leave the apartment, stay motivated to train together, and actually get a steadier sleep schedule.

Pico’s need for cuddles and play was also a welcome distraction for Giselle. “She’s always so happy, I frequently tell others that I’m not sure how I would be getting through the pandemic if we didn’t have Pico. Living through this has been tough, but having her has made it a little bit easier. Even if I’m not feeling great, her good mood rubs off on me.”

Filed Under: Bark Slope, Feature, Pandemic Diaries Tagged With: pandemic, pets, sofia pipolo

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