I’m an introvert, but the lack of social interaction in these difficult days is starting to get to me. It feels like a balm when the faces of my church community group pop up on our weekly Zoom call. Phone calls and texts are lifelines rather than distractions.

I’m grateful to be sheltering-in-place with my husband, but many people are on their own. For those living alone, the sharp break from companionship, from physical touch, and even from small talk is a kind of valley. It’s a valley Whitney Woollard started walking through before COVID-19, because of her chronic health conditions. In “Social Distance, Don’t Social Isolate” Woollard shares practical ways to ward off loneliness and interact with Christ’s people even when you can’t be with them physically.

By the time this isolation period is ended, I suspect we will all be less likely to take friendship and community for granted. But we don’t have to wait until the pandemic is over to let people know that we love them and we miss them. Let’s figure out ways to be alone together.