Since the first year of the Covid pandemic, new ways of communicating have emerged. It has made our world larger and it has made our world smaller.

A new word entered our vocabulary, “Zoom”. People arranged meetings via Zoom since they could not meet in person. There were book clubs, art groups, businesses that resorted to Zoom to conduct business and keep up with group activities. For a short while I even arranged to Zoom with my sisters and nieces. We would meet once a month just to check in and make sure everyone was OK. We were.

The Royal Scottish Country Dancers of San Diego, met every Friday via Zoom. Ward our teacher was incredibly faithful to meeting every Friday. And the dance community responded, showing up most Fridays to catch up. We may not have danced but we could learn some of the quirks and queries of dance and we stayed bonded as a community.

Jean, our other Scottish Dance teacher Zoomed most Mondays and taught dances. People met in their living rooms, garages or other areas of their homes, dancing alone or with other members of the household.

The Royal Scottish Dance Society of Scotland, our mother-ship, met once a month via Zoom with members all over the world. Different teachers from different countries and areas would teach each month. And…we danced in our homes. We stayed connected and involved even though many of us had never met.

Why might I be sharing this with you? Currently I am in Canada. I was in Nova Scotia for a Roadtrek Rally. It was fun. At the same time as the rally, very good friends of mine, Cynthia and Ward from San Diego, were in Halifax at the Scottish Country Dance, Teachers Association of Canada dance week. Ward is involved with the board and both travel to dance. The music is amazing and the dancing fun.

More of the San Diego Scottish Dance members were at the Summer camp for dancing at St Andrews, Scotland. Yes it is fun to travel to dance. It is fun to make friends from all over the world.

On Tuesday, TAC (Canada) and St Andrews Summer School had a shared dance to celebrate anniversaries. How did they do it? You guessed it. Zoom once again connected us across continents and water. Each group had their own teachers and musicians. They danced the same dance at the same time. A large Zoom video was on the wall of the space they were dancing in. We all waved at each other and for a small wee second in time two communities were united as one. How cool is that?

I was invited to experience it with the dancers even though I am not dancing at this moment in time. For about an hour I slipped in to watch the dancers, enjoy the fine music and surprise a few friends who had no idea I was close by. I also got to experience this event of combining two communites into one. It was a great afternoon.

Before 2020, who would have ever guessed that Zoom would become a noun and a verb in our everyday language. It has definitely made our world smaller and larger in that we can see each other and interact with each other in ways we could not have done before this. Zoom was in the right place and the right time. It took off and will be a part of our society until the next interesting and unique communication invention comes along.

Today I am thankful for Zoom and the joy it brought to me and others as we stayed connected in an unusual time for the whole world. Today I am thankful for my dance community of friends. Today I am thankful I am still able to stay involved in dance even if I cannot physically dance.

Today I am Thankful.