This collective began with a call for — physical emotional, artistic — pandemic survival tips. A year of uncertainty, loss and unexpected discoveries later, I hear many berating themselves for what they haven’t done, as if putting one foot in front of the other, literally and metaphorically, weren’t enormous in and of itself.

So I’m asking you to share your proudest pandemic accomplishments (it can be a single moment, a list, something you created) OR who you’re proudest of, for the way they’ve navigated for the pandemic, or perhaps for how they helped you, even unknowingly.

Speak it, sing it, chant it — there are no rules — and if English isn’t your first or favorite language, use whichever is.

Recording audio is easy if you have a smartphone: 1. Set phone to airplane mode (while recording). 2. Open Voices Memos app. 3. Hit the big red button to start recording, and again when you're done. Please state your name and where you live or are currently located. 4. Send the file(s) to natasha@bestofpossibleworlds.com.

Remember, not everyone a smartphone. If you can someone else record their entry as well, please do. THANK YOU.

THE DIARY COLLECTIVE

Peg Duthie. Nashville, TN. 3/14.21. Peg shares her proudest pandemic moments, including not killing (too many) plants, the bao of mourning, and a poem from her fundraising challenge to raise money for Tupelo Press. (Quick, you have until 4/1/21 to read the poems!)

Ted Nunes, Natasha Senjanovic. On the road to McMinnville, TN, to get my first vaccine. 3/8/21. I wanted Ted to talk about pride in himself, but in typical fashion, he turned the tables.

Brian Siskind. Nashville, TN. 5/30/20. MUSIC. A “sonic portrait of uncertainty” from a filmmaker and musician for whom music has always been solace — until now. When even the familiar feels alien sometimes.

Ellis, Niko & Laura Berlind. Nashville, TN. 5/28/20. Ellis (8) and Niko (5) explain what scientists and journalists are doing to, respectively, try and cure us of and inform us about the coronavirus, how mom is an “eviler” teacher, and what it’s like to have a birthday during a pandemic…while “Mawtasha” dreams of future water fights.

David & John. Nashville, TN. 5/26/20. The true movers and shakers of a city are those who keep our communities functioning day in and day out. Like the sanitation workers who roll down my street blasting disco and funk music, brightening even the grayest days. They say they’re on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of the recognition being given to essential workers.

MUSIC. Tony Garcia. Nashville, TN. 5/16/20. Tony has used the extra time on his hands to teach himself to play both parts of FIVE Bach pieces, on mandolin: Menuet in G from The Anna Magdalena Notebook; Aria - Enlightenment Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker; Gavotte II from Suite for Lute, BWV 995; Bourée from Suite for Lute in E minor; and Air from Partita VI, BWV 830. He’s currently working on piece number six.

Zdravka Tzankova & Mimi Blind. Nashville, TN. 5/16/20. A mother and her second grader discuss the “peaks and pits” of being home together all the time. [Recorded 4/18/20]

Demetrios Matheou. London, England. 5/3/20. The self-isolation of Brexit: Its absurdity, xenophobia and self-harm become all the more “pitiful” when the world is desperate to connect.

Margaret Renkl. Nashville, Tennessee. 4/30/20. The author and columnist is finding joy in having her whole family at home, whether they like it or not; seeing life unfold again on her neighborhood streets (at a distance of course); and her crush on Anthony Fauci. [Recorded 4/24/20.]

Scott Barnes. Durham, North Carolina. 4/30/20. Scott composed “The Parable of Braided Creek” after six days of a fever the kind of which, he says, he had never experienced before.

James Cowper. Congleton, Cheshire, England. 4/23/20. A performer turns wanderlust into local exploring, recognizes the gift of our hyper-technological world, and cleans rocks with the family he cherishes. We will look back on this say, “We did it. We got through it all together.”

Kelly Boersma. Union Pier, Michigan. 4/23/20. An empty nester who has frequently battled mild depression realizes just how important a daily sense of purpose and work are to feeling grounded. 

John Voakes. Columbus, Ohio. 4/23/20. Reflections on the international response to the crisis, continuing to social distance and unexpectedly becoming an “essential worker.”  

Tracy DeTomasi. Nashville, TN. 4/23/20. A national expert on domestic violence, Tracy talks about how grateful she is to self-isolate with the right partner, her fears for her parents, and the unexpected joys of cooking for a chronic eater-outer. (The tape ends abruptly because I forgot to end the “formal” part of the interview and we ended up talking for an hour, as we often do…)

Jason Hernandez. Nashville, TN. 4/18/20. Jason is a construction worker and feels lucky that he and his wife, a graphic designer who can work from home, have jobs when so many have been laid off.

Lisa Martin. NYC/Paris. 4/14/20. Lisa wrestles with having been cavalier about cheating the pandemic…until she couldn’t be. She got sick in NYC (visiting her old stomping grounds) and traveled home to Paris in that condition, when neither city was taking C-19 all that seriously - yet. (Excerpts from LM’s journal.)

Danica Rusjan, my mother. Utica, NY, 4/12/20. In the midst of the pandemic, my mother (a retired nurse) went to the hospital for overnight carotid artery surgery…and stayed ten days. Her voice still raspy, she talks about making sure the "code blue" (cardiopulmonary arrest) PA alerts weren't about her, the food she unexpectedly craved, the BS of C-19 testing, her father who buried his parents, and her lifelong "job" of placating my fears before her own. We spoke on my "first" Easter, a week before her/our Serbian Orthodox Easter.

Nan Hackman. Memphis, Tennessee. 4/11/20. How to hack (no pun intended) a tiramisu when key ingredients are missing and underlying medical conditions mean you do not want to go out if you don’t have to.

Bryan Reynolds, Owensboro, Kentucky. 4/7/20. The second person hospitalized for COVID-19 in his small town, Bryan shares with colleague Hal Humphries how his nurse practitioner girlfriend likely saved his life; and his fears and faith in the hospital, where his only human contact was a single nurse. (Recorded for the Sound of Pursuit podcast.)

Natasha Senjanovic. Nashville, Tennessee. 3/28/20. The unexpected pain of time travel, between Italy and the US. My despair over America's response to the pandemic is at a minimum here, mostly out of exhaustion, and worrying about my mother, who’s in a hospital where she (a retired nurse) says not everyone in the ICU wore gloves.

Maja Titonel. Rome, Italy. 3/28/20. In Italian. Maja, a modern art gallery owner, lives alone but has to venture out often, to get food, medicine and other necessities for her mother, who's wheelchair bound, and her mother's caretaker. Maja says the feeling of incredulity, of thinking you'll wake up to find this isn't happening, soon gives way to the uncertainty for the future that we all share. Her advice for maintaining mental and physical health: 1. Follow 1-2 trusted official sources, who strike the best balance between scientific information and emotional comfort. 2. Set a routine that divides each day into small pieces, and don't skip personal hygiene or stay in your pj's too long. In her case, she's meditating, cooking [NS: I can vouch this is new :)], writing in a journal, calling friends, exercising. (But be careful to avoid any accidents at home that could lead to an ER visit.)  3. Dance! She and a friend choose a song every day and at 10 pm crank up the volume and dance. No video, no phone calls, dancing alone but feeling connected. 4. Stay away from political pollution as much as possible.

MUSIC. Anana Kaye & Irakli Gabriel. Nashville, TN. 3/27/29. Two great Nashville musicians send cheers to us all, and a song.

Danica Rusjan, a.k.a. my mother. Utica, NY. 3/25/20. A retired nurse, she’s going in for surgery to unblock her carotid artery today (3/26/20). We spoke last night, about how she’s less worried than the rest of us, and about her two favorites subjects: respecting nurses, especially in a crisis, and cooking. As a fair and balanced journalist, I can honestly say she is one of the world’s best cooks.

Andrea Pacor.* Rome, Italy. 3/26/20. Andrea went above and beyond my call for entries, and created a video summarizing his past few weeks. Main takeaways: 1. Learn from Italy, i.e. take this seriously but don't panic (they're not hoarding, or even out of pasta). 2. Yes, this is like wartime, with uncertain economic consequences, but without the same destruction. 3. Share funny memes to keep up spirits. 4. Above all else, don't lose hope. [*Andrea, whom I’ve known since age 13, actually named this blog, much better than what I was coming up with. ]

Lee Marshall. Città della Pieve, Italy. 3/26/20. The surreal feeling of being a voice in the wilderness shouting from the future of the pandemic. Until the rest of the world caught up. When it comes to where you are, he says, "it will all move very fast."

Residents in a Bavarian town take to their rooftops, garbage cans and balconies to sing “Bella Ciao,” the legendary WWII Italian Resistance song , in solidarity with Italians in their fight again C-19. (Also the song my grandfather, a Yugoslavian Resistance fighter, wanted sung at his funeral.)

Mario Mariani. Pesaro, Italy. 3/23/20. A classically trained pianist, experimental composer and longtime friend, Mario says more and more people he knows are dying in his hometown. He promises to send a contribution, I told him no rush. Meanwhile, here’s his rendition of Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite No 2. Waltz 2 (featuring a melodica), which I’ve turned to in many a difficult moment. And Rossini’s Neapolitan Tarantella, featuring what Mario really loves to do with piano strings.

Ruth Moors D’Eredita. Vienna, Virginia. 3/23/20. Ruth feels privileged, even as her family prepares for the inevitability of her daughter, who works in an ER in Washington DC, contracting the virus.

Valentina Di Michele. Teramo, Italy. 3/22/20. Valentina and her fiance left their flat in Rome to help her parents. She says not everyone in the lockdown is so lucky to be with people they love…or don’t hate. And that routine is key.

Rob Roop. Munich, Germany. 3/22/20. Rob kindly recorded one of his FB posts for me, on what it was like to get a call from a doctor telling him his family needed to get tested.

MUSIC. Kristen Englez. Musician. Nashville, Tennessee. 3/21/20. Music as a universal language of love, anger and hope.

Maria Browning. Writer, Editor, Teacher. White Bluff, Tennessee. 3/21/20. Even in a rural idyll, COVID 19 hits home.