“I find that my purpose is somewhat displaced
right now, and I’m trying to find another
purpose,” she says. “So part of my planning has
become, ‘Who can I help today?’”
A big music fan, she’s also holding onto the list
of concerts she bought tickets for this spring and
summer: the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers,
Dave Matthews. Some have been canceled;
others surely will be. But she keeps the list.
Park, the family therapist, appreciates that
people need their plans. She worries, though,
that trying to hold onto a rigid structure that
no longer makes sense may produce anxiety in
itself. “You can be putting in a lot of energy to
fight to keep that structure in place,” she says.
If a day is particularly bad — and Bushee says
she’s had plenty — she finds she can at least
draw comfort from a very simple bit of prescribed
structure that’s really a built-in piece of planning in
miniature: a recipe. Cooking at home has become
not only a necessity, but a release.
“I made chicken pot pie for my family the
other day,” she says. “including homemade
crust, which I never do. You know what? It
was pretty awesome.”