Live Updates
Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts to read some of the responses.
All it took was a bundle of sloppy kisses and quivering energy to convince Jolyn Koehl that something was missing in her life.
Between feeling lonely and stressed during the pandemic, Koehl said there were moments of extreme gratitude and connection, she told CNN.
“Everything I loved about the city was unavailable; restaurants, concerts, happy hours. But it forced me to slow down and consider how I might want my life to change after the pandemic,” she said.
Koehl, a vice president at Zeno Group, a strategic communications firm, decided to foster a 3-month-old puppy named Zemo from Paws Chicago due to working from home, an abundance of free time, and the need for a “temporary companion that would” get her off the couch, she told CNN.
“He hates garbage trucks and barks when I leave the apartment. My schedule revolves around when he needs to walk and pee and eat and the people were right,” Koehl said. “It’s a lot of work. But after a month of waking up to his patient, eager eyes as I open my bedroom door, watching him hurdle towards me after he’s done playing with his park friends, and listening to him snore and sigh as we spend another evening on the couch, I understand why people do it.”
Zemo recently went to his forever home, leaving behind “nose smudges on the window, a half-eaten jar of peanut butter, a squeaky ball under my dresser and a place in my heart forever,” Koehl said.
In terms of whether she’ll be adopting a dog, Koehl said “it is only a matter of time now; just need to find my own big backyard first.”
Roxanne Watson is most grateful for one thing: her heart, and the man who gave it to her.
Watson, 67, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was on the transplant list for four years. She was hospitalized in critical care for nearly three months.
“On the 60th day of critical care I had an ‘Aha’ moment,” she said. “I told myself, ‘If you live, you will do this work so no one will have to suffer so much to get a donor.”
A month later, Watson got a young man’s heart in a transplant that saved her life.
Her donor, firefighter Michael Bovill, 23, had died in a motorcycle accident.
That was in July 2010. Since then, Watson has made it her mission to register people to be organ donors. She says she’s spread her message at schools, libraries and shopping malls, and has registered about 12,000 people so far.
As a volunteer firefighter and an active duty member of the US Coast Guard, Bovill lived in New Jersey and spent his short time on Earth trying to save lives. Watson wants to spend the rest of her days repaying that favor.
“It’s been 11 years since my transplant, but this never gets old,” she said. “He (Bovill) saved five of us with his organs. And now it’s my full-time job to honor him and use his story to encourage others to save lives.”
Watson has met Bovill’s parents and stays in touch with them. She now tells people she’s 34. That’s how old he would have been this year.
James Campbell grew up in Indianapolis, home to the “Indy 500” – one of the most famous racetracks in the world.
As a child, he always wanted to be a race car driver but life and a career got in the way.
Campbell said the pandemic drove home that life is short and when he thought about all the things he would want to achieve in his life, one thing stood out: “drive a race car.”
He was living in Minnesota at the time and had a friend instructing at Brainerd International Raceway so he decided to make his dream come true.
And when he did, the experience didn’t disappoint.
“I felt like a dream had come true,” he said. “The fact that I could have done that sooner was something that bothered me some. I also had a feeling of relief and extreme joy.”
That experience ignited something in him and it won’t be his last. Campbell intends to go back next year.
Mike LaMonica, from Miami Florida, was a competitive swimmer at the University of Connecticut, but he took a 30-year break from dedicated and competitive swimming after college.
In 2015 he began swimming again as part of his rehabilitation after a hernia operation. When the pandemic began, he “rededicated” himself to his passion of swimming, making a point to go every day.
Little did he know that when pools first reopened in South Beach, he would also meet the love of his life, Kelly.
“It was one of the first pools to reopen and I was there every day,” LaMonica told CNN.
“At first I did not know she was the manager, but also at first, I did know she was the one for me,” he added.
LaMonica and Kelly were married in September of this year.
On top of meeting his wife, LaMonica also broke two United States swimming records in the 100 Meter Butterfly and 200 yard Butterfly at the Coral Springs Masters Short Course Meters Meet last December.
“Swimming was definitely a refuge during the pandemic and it continues to be,” LaMonica said.
“I doubled down on what was important to me. This epidemic has been a tragedy and a tough time. But it had a beautiful silver lining for me,” LaMonica said.
He added, “The pandemic is what you make it, and I think I made a lot out of it. I am blessed to come out of it with so much.”
My family of five, which includes my three children – ages 11, 9 and 7 – were at a local state park. They wanted to check out the gift shop at the end of our visit.
“Mom, this isn’t the accessible entrance,” my 7-year-old son said. “You need to ask someone where to go.”
My 9-year-old son is disabled and uses a wheelchair. The accessible entrance was locked, so we went to the main entrance, which had stairs.
It matters to my kids that we are all able to get somewhere, not just those of us who can use the stairs. They also know how to ask for help. Advocating has become second nature to them.
This isn’t anything I consciously taught them how to do. They learned through observing my husband and me, and they are proud to speak up for the needs of our family. It’s an important life skill I didn’t know they learned until they demonstrated it in front of me.
Before I became a parent, I knew I would be supporting my children and teaching them how to care for themselves and how to navigate the world. What I didn’t expect was how much I would learn from them. Here are some of my favorite lessons.
This year, we’ve watched the story of a little chopper unfold on another planet. And much like the joy brought by the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars in February, the journey of its Ingenuity helicopter sidekick is just what we needed in 2021.
From millions of miles away, we’ve looked to the red planet as a distraction from our woes as we live through the second year of a pandemic. Meanwhile, two robots are achieving what was once thought to be impossible on Mars.
It’s easy to project our hopes on them, envision them as two robot pals playing out some buddy cop scenario. Their discoveries bring us wonder. Their successes are worth celebrating. And they send back stunning postcards from a rust-colored world.
Ingenuity was built and is powered by the same human trait from which it takes its name. Thousands of dedicated, hardworking and creative people worked for years to make it a reality. When I ask scientists if they ever imagined a helicopter flying on Mars, most of them say no – but they are glad, and in awe, that it exists and is actively flying through the Martian atmosphere.
The journey hasn’t been easy for the helicopter. Imagine building an experiment, technology to be demonstrated on another planet, and not running into some problems. Time and time again, the chopper and its team have overcome these issues to keep exploring.
Let us be grateful for people like MiMi Aung and Ingenuity’s chief engineer, Bob Balaram, and the rest of the Ingenuity team at NASA for pushing so hard to make what was once an idea sitting on a shelf a successful reality.
Ingenuity may only be 4 pounds, but it has successfully carried all of our hopes. It has allowed us to dream of successors capable of even more, and Ingenuity’s continued achievements spark the same joy as the landing of Perseverance.
Read the full article here.
Logically speaking, we should be in a perpetual state of gratitude. Most people who read this column, even if they aren’t fully aware, have a long list of blessings to count (most of the time, anyway). Yes, even in the middle of a pandemic. For all the challenges and deep loss this year has delivered around the world, there is much left over to embrace:
Family. Friends. Love. Health. Freedom from war and natural disaster. Imagination. Community. A roof over our heads. Common decency. Hope. Opportunity. Memories. Financial stability. Favorite places. Days off work. Good weather. The golden age of television. Books. Music. Ice cream. Weekends. A friendly exchange. Something good that happened today. Something bad that didn’t happen today. A good cup of coffee.
You may not have everything you want or even need, but that probably leaves buckets – nay, container ships – full of tangible and conceptual items for which to be grateful. Things can always be better, but they can always be worse. It often depends on how you look at that proverbial glass of water.
To get in better touch with gratefulness, all you have to do is find easy ways to count blessings more often than, say, over an annual turkey dinner. Keep them boiling on the front burner of your mind, and you increase your appreciation of life.
What keeps us from longer and more frequent visits to a grateful (and graceful) mental place is that we think about other things. In fact, we are wired to. Our primitive brains smartly evolved the capacity to quickly sense potential threats, to keep us safe. But in a post-saber-toothed-tiger era, we get easily annoyed, worried and distracted by a lot of extraneous noise.
Instead, we need more focus on the positive, And you don’t have to set the bar high. Allow yourself to be thankful for the small, mundane things that give you joy and meaning, as well as the big ones. And don’t try to gather heaps of blessings to count; a handful each day should do it.
You can read the full article here.
“I’m forever grateful for the additional time I got to spend with my children. I know many people struggled, but for us, it worked,” Kelly Jarboe from Louisville, Kentucky, told CNN.
Kelly and her husband successfully navigated a full year of virtual Kindergarten during the Covid-19 pandemic “and thrived,” while working from home with their two younger children.
Kelly describes spending hours swinging on their backyard swing set and miles of hiking or playing in creeks and waterfalls along the trails, finding “treasures” which she explains meant acorns and feathers for the kids.
Kelly now works from home along with her husband and says she “couldn’t be happier.”
After seven years of infertility and adopting twins through foster care, Cassie McNulty figured her family was complete.
“We first started trying to get pregnant in 2015. Everyone around us would plan when they wanted to get pregnant and it would easily happen. We assumed it would be simple for us, but month after month of us trying, I was left feeling devastated when my period would come,” she says.
Cassie and her husband did all kind of tests before they were prescribed with “unexplained infertility.” Instead of pursuing expensive fertility treatments, they decided to shift their focus of wanting biological children to helping children in foster care.
“In 2017 we became licensed foster parents and took in newborn twins. After two years of being in the foster care system, our twins were adopted in 2019. After the adoption was finalized, I gave away all of our baby items,” Cassie says, adding, “I no longer wanted to get pregnant and my mind was set on us being a family of four.”
Cassie and her husband didn’t use protection because they figured, after so many years of trying, it wouldn’t – and couldn’t – happen. So in September 2020, in the middle of a challenging pandemic, they were shocked to find out they were pregnant!
“I had my period date all wrong, so in my mind, my period wasn’t late,” Cassie explains. “A friend quickly reminded me that we were on the same schedule for our cycles and that I should have had mine by now. She made me run to CVS to get a pregnancy test. I took her advice even though I thought I wouldn’t be pregnant. There were many joyful tears over a positive pregnancy test, but I still didn’t believe it until my first doctor’s appointment where I heard the heartbeat.”
Karis, which means “grace,” was born on April 21 of this year and Cassie describes her as their “miracle baby.”
“During a scary, challenging, chaotic time, when our world felt divided and hopeless, miraculously getting pregnant provided us, and those who knew our story, a glimmer of hope,” she says.
“When it’s hard to see any good that came out of the pandemic, we are reminded of this gracious gift we’ve been given, and we are forever grateful.”
As Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, many of us are taking stock of what’s most meaningful in our lives. Although times are still tough for many, if we stop to think about it, we still have much to be grateful for.
We want to know what you’re most thankful for this past year?
Has someone done you an act of kindness you especially appreciate? Or is there something else – a gift, a person, a passion or an event – that has brought you profound gratitude?
Fill in the form below and let us know.
Alice Hahn is grateful that her twin sister Margie is still alive.
“Margie has had epilepsy for most of her life, with ups and downs of brain surgery and assorted medications (and their side effects),” she told CNN.
Margie fell on April 7 while attempting to sit in a chair in Alice’s kitchen after washing her hands.
“A sudden seizure made her fall sideways before I could catch her, resulting in a foot injury,” Alice says.
As a result of the fall Margie experienced complications which resulted in multiple hospitalizations and rehabilitations.
“Like others with epilepsy, she has also endured ignorance from others regarding her illness. Yet Margie has continued to fight on as she recovers from the unbelievable nightmare that she had to endure. I am filled with gratitude that she has survived!”
Jessica Homann was not much of a walker.
But when the pandemic hit and she found herself in lockdown, she chafed at the notion of being stuck inside all day.
So during her lunch hour she began going on short strolls around her suburban St. Louis neighborhood. Just a few blocks, in her flip-flops.
Before long, Homann had bought walking shoes and athletic clothes, and she was striding two miles each morning. Then three miles. Then four.
She began to notice little details around her neighborhood, as if for the first time. She admired the trees. She spied hawks, bunnies and even a fox. When it snowed, she surprised herself by making a snow angel.
And she felt restored.
“These walks, with the fresh air, nature, and opportunity to stop and take in the beauty all around me, have returned me to myself,” Homann, 47, told CNN. “They have physically and emotionally saved me.”
The walks have also encouraged her to delve more deeply into photography, one of her hobbies. Homann uses her phone to document her neighborhood walks on Instagram, sharing scenes of foliage, flowers and holiday decorations – along with occasional shots of rolled-up newspapers in her neighbors’ driveways, their headlines marking the passage of pandemic time.
She’s also connected more deeply with her neighbors – fellow morning strollers, dog walkers and others.
“I have walked through all seasons and holidays – admiring the festivities and decor of the homes I pass,” said Homann, who works as an executive search consultant in the health care field. “I have seen families bring home puppies and babies.”
Homann now walks four to five miles a day, almost every day. Her husband rarely joins her – most days, she goes solo. She’s lost 25 pounds, and her cholesterol has gone down.
But for her, the biggest benefit of her walks might be psychological.
“They have brought me joy and perspective that I am passing on to others,” she said. “It has been the greatest gift – one I had the ability to give myself all along, but likely would not have if not for the pandemic. As a result, COVID will always represent a positive turning point for me – a precious bend in my life for which I am grateful.”
The season of giving thanks can’t come quickly enough for some parents.
Four in five parents who responded to a poll from the University of Michigan Health say children today are not grateful enough.
Parents who responded to the poll say they are teaching their children the magic words, “please and thank you.” However, when it comes to actions over words, the children – and parents – could be falling short, said Sarah Clark, research scientist at the University of Michigan and co-director of the poll.
Expressing gratitude can improve mental health for both children and adults, studies have found. But children don’t develop gratitude automatically – parents need to model and create strategies to teach children these behaviors, Clark said. Volunteering and community service can help children see what they should be thankful for, and what they can do for others, the report said.
Emily Conder, a research scientist and doctoral student in Vanderbilt University’s psychology and human development department, published a study about how children can develop negative biases toward people after overhearing negative words. Children can model behaviors from indirect sources as well.
Parents can also play a role in how children process and express emotions, said Ashley Ruba, postdoctoral researcher in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab.
She said when parents talk to their children about emotions, both positive and negative, children have a better understanding of what they are feeling and how to react.
“Gratitude can be socialized in a similar way … actually having conversations about things that you’re grateful for and why you’re grateful for these things,” Ruba said.
Read more on this here.
When we think about what or who we are most thankful for on this Earth, we often think of people whose presence make the world a little better.
People like Nyla Covington.
Covington is a senior at a high school in Brooklyn, Mississippi. She was voted homecoming queen by her classmates, and crowned in September at a school football game.
For a lot of high schoolers, it’s a dream come true. But then Covington did something selfless – and kind of amazing.
She walked across the football field and handed her crown to a classmate, Brittany Walters, whose mother had just died of cancer. Walters also had been nominated for homecoming queen, and her mother had hoped to be there to cheer her daughter.
“I just felt like it was something that was put on my heart,” Covington told CNN later when asked about the gesture. “I was telling her that she was her mom’s queen and I was just letting her know that she was loved by many and especially me.”
Walters was stunned, and in tears.
“I just felt so like so much love from her, and I just felt so much love for her and the whole school,” she said.
There’s no question about what Reid Alexander is most thankful for this Thanksgiving.
Sixteen months ago, Alexander was suffering from alport syndrome, a kidney disease which required dialysis 12 hours a week. His kidneys were functioning at only 20%. He grew tired easily and had a long list of foods he couldn’t eat.
Then he matched with Rafael Diaz on the popular dating app Tinder.
Alexander didn’t just find a boyfriend – he found a soulmate who may have saved his life. Six months after they met, Diaz got down on a knee at a restaurant and proposed. And six months after that, the couple had surgeries to remove Diaz’s right kidney and transplant it in Alexander.
“He gave me more than love,” Alexander said. “He gave me a future.”
Read their full story here.
As Americans head into the Thanksgiving holiday, many people talk about being grateful.
That can feel out of place or even cruel during a pandemic when so much and so many have been lost. But there are still things to be grateful for.
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, whose husband survived a case of Covid-19 last year, told us what she’s thinking about this Thanksgiving.
“There is so much that I’m deeply grateful for. First, I’m grateful for my family. My husband, Sebastian, and I have two lovely little kids, a 4-year-old son, Eli, and the “pandemic baby” Isabelle, who is now a year and a half,” Wen said.
“Sebastian contracted Covid-19 last year, just a month before the vaccines were made available. We feel very grateful that he survived Covid-19, and we mourn the over 750,000 Americans and millions of people around the world who have tragically succumbed to the pandemic.”
Wen also expressed gratitude for the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other frontline health care workers who worked tirelessly to keep the rest of us safe.
“These are individuals who were already overstretched and overworked before the pandemic, who then had to take on the responsibility of setting up testing, standing up contact-tracing operations, then running the most expansive vaccination effort in recent history,” she said.
“On top of that, they battle constant misinformation and disinformation. Many public health officials have faced harassment, even physical harm, just for trying to do their job. I give thanks to them, and to all the essential workers and their families who have sacrificed so much over the last two years,” Wen added
Read the full interview here.
Events that celebrate gratitude, like Thanksgiving, make us feel good. But how do we keep that feeling of thankfulness throughout the rest of the year?
Like any skill worth mastering, gratitude takes practice to realize its full potential, says wellness coach Dana Santas.
Scientists have found that daily doses of gratitude deliver benefits beyond feelings of happiness, extending to enhanced relationships, self-esteem and overall life satisfaction.
Santas offers a free lesson plan to help you recognize gratitude in your everyday routine.
Try it for 5 days, she says, and you’ll see a difference.
The hours spent counseling clients coping with anxiety caused by the pandemic taught Dr. Amy Phillips a lot about human resolve and her own struggles.
Phillips, of Rockville, Maryland, had a handful of clients who faced challenges like fear and anxiety during the lockdown and the pandemic in general, she told CNN.
“It was rewarding to help them navigate it all and to be able to help them,” she said.
One of the unique challenges some clients faced was discovering the people they were living with “were irritating them during the pandemic.”
“They had to all stay inside together during lockdown and then, find the space to have video therapy with me. We had to switch to telehealth video therapy rather quickly and that was a challenge for them, and for myself too,” Phillips said.
One of the things Phillips learned about herself was to value her free time and develop “skills to keep myself calm.”
“I learned that I could keep myself together and going, not panic either, and keep everything in perspective,” she said. “Essentially, doing in my own life what I teach my clients. It’s not that I wasn’t doing that before, but I could see how using the skills I teach my clients really was especially effective during the pandemic.”
One rewarding respite for her has been art.
Phillips began taking classes virtually in painting at a local atelier, which helped her “be creative and use that to relax and recharge.”
She used that experience to create an art portfolio which she used to apply and gain acceptance into a Master of Fine Arts painting program at Savannah College of Art and Design.
