Friendly Wishes in a Pandemic

We offer friendly wishes at the end of my classes for children. We start with wishes for ourselves, then for other people, and last for everyone and everything.  I thought you would be interested in this transcript of the friendly wishes voiced by the 8 – 12-year-old boys in one of my Zoom classes this week.   

Friendly wishes to me.
"I wish that COVID would end and that we could play with our friends."
"I hope that I can do better with my anger because I have trouble controlling my anger and get really angry."

Friendly wishes to other people.
"My wish is that all my friends and family do not get COVID."
"I wish that everybody stays safe and at least wears a mask if they go out of their house or buildings that they are staying in."
"I wish that at least people wear a mask properly if they go out of the house because I'm worried about people wearing the mask by the neck or just on the mouth. Yeah."

Friendly wishes to everyone and everything.
"I wish that COVID would end right now. COVID would surrender to all the doctors."
"My wish is the same, that everybody at least wears a mask if they go out of the house."
"My wish for the planet is that everybody gets healthier and that people are nicer to forests because people keep cutting down the trees and that people would plant trees."
"I wish the wildlife stay safe."

Please join me in the brief friendly wishes practice below - one transcribed from this class of elementary-aged boys. Let's dedicate it to them along with the many, many other children who are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic this summer.

"Let's all close our eyes and imagine a world where absolutely everybody, when they're outside of their house, is wearing a mask and they're wearing it properly. They have it on just the way that it's supposed to be so that they're protecting themselves and protecting other people and protecting everyone on the planet. Let's take another moment and wish that everybody has a mask that needs one, because there may be some people who want to wear masks but don't have them. Let's hope that everybody who needs a mask has a mask, and knows how to wear it. Let's hope that everyone on the planet wears their masks."