Part of my identity includes being the daughter of a retired Home Ec teacher - meaning I was in the kitchen learning how to use allthethings before I ever darkened the door of a school. It also means I'm faring pretty well in cooking department of this quarantine business. One of our kitchen's newer gadgets is an Instant Pot. You've likely heard of them, but for those who aren't energized by culinary endeavours, here are the basics. An Instant Pot is a pressure cooker, crock pot combo - translation: you can put frozen chicken in said pot, season it up, close the lid, hit a button and have cooked chicken in about 30 minutes. It's kind of a modern day miracle, tho the process isn't at all new. We use our Instant Pot on the regular - we've made everything from spaghetti & meatballs (in one pot, starting with raw noodles and raw meatballs and it turned out beautifully despite the noodles being a tad overcooked) to cheesecake (best textured cheesecake I've ever had - sorry, mama). It comes in handy on meeting nights, or 'I forgot to thaw the chicken' nights and I'm glad we have it. The new, surprising part of the Instant Pot's reality is its metaphorical relationship to this Covid-19 reality.
If you use an Instant Pot, you're familiar with the terms 'quick release' and 'natural release' - they refer to how quickly the pressure escapes from the pot - a step that must be completed before you can open it. Quick release is exactly what it sounds like - you turn a knob and steam shoots out of the top spraying hot water vapour over whatever is in its path. Natural release lives up to its name as well - happening slowly, over time. The pot stays locked until the pressure dissipates so the pressure has to be released one way or the other for you to get to your dinner. This morning, while having my coffee and watching the Today show during their 'Morning Boost' segment, Hoda and Savannah shared two uplifting stories meant to counteract the 4734 doom and gloom stories about Coronavirus and the boosts hit me right in the feels. The first story was about a retiring State Trooper whose daughter is the dispatcher for his precinct. He signed off for the final time and his daughter thanked him for 30+ years of service and said she and her family were happy to have him home for good. She closed the exchange with, "Love you, Daddy". They followed this story with one about a 3 year old named Mabel who had finished her final round of chemo. Since her friends and family couldn't celebrate with the party they'd hoped to have, her whole neighbourhood participated in a driving parade - complete with a fire truck and signs and balloons. My eyes welled up and I lost it for a minute - maybe a couple of minutes, actually, of cathartic sobs. Then I went on with putting on my makeup and getting ready for the day.
Turns out that Morning Boost hit my quick release button. I needed to release the pressure I didn't even realize had built up to make room for the weight of these pandemic days. These days feel completely bipolar. On the one hand, we've kind of hit our groove and like the casual way we're completing our days with all four of us at home. On another hand, it's absolutely depressing that we can't pick up and go exploring or on some Forced Family Fun adventure. On yet another hand, my heart longs to reconnect, in person, with my family, friends and students. There seems to be no ebb and flow to the day - just disjointed jerking from one layer of reality to another. That jerking around surreptitiously builds pressure that simply has to escape in fits and starts to make room for it to rebuild. Our quick releases are important, just for us to continue functioning. I've found myself wondering what an actual natural release will look like or how we'll get to that place. Some days I wonder if we'll ever feel like the pressure has naturally released and we'll walk through the days and weeks actually feeling relaxed, without all of the 'rules' running through our heads.
I also wonder what yummy delicious feasts may come out of this pressure cooker season we're in. How will we cling to the sweet and savoury pieces of this time when we go back to school, go back to work, go back to lessons and practices and commuting? It's strange to think about - I'm reminded of how I felt when we left the hospital after having our first baby. I wanted to say - Wait! Wait! Wait! Where's the owner's manual? Isn't there a guidebook? But there wasn't and here we are again, no guidebook in the midst of a life changing event. I actually like some of what we've fallen into as our new groove and I mourn for some of what we've lost from our old groove and I wonder how we can weave those fibers together to create a new tapestry that we will later call normal. In these strange days, I will try to remember to continue to make space for my 'quick release' button to be engaged to make space for energy to continue in this journey. I hope you are able to do the same.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
40 Days and 40 Nights
40 is a liturgically significant number in the Christian tradition - Jesus was tempted for 40 days, the earth was flooded for 40 days, Moses and the Israelites roamed the wilderness for 40 YEARS. And yet, 40 days have come and gone without any pomp and circumstance in this Covid-19 reality. I feel a little bit like I did when Henry decided to incubate beyond his estimated due date during my first pregnancy. It's an unexpected let down. I'm not sure what I actually expected. In reality, it isn't as if this virus has its roots in my faith tradition, but numbers somehow stick in my head and imbed themselves in my sense of expectation whether I want them to or not. Little has changed since last week when we found ourselves at 33 days, but surpassing the 40 mark feels significant for some inexplicable reason.
This week I'm a bit more frustrated - we don't know what Step One after Shelter in Place will be - what will the limit of group size be? Where will we be able to visit? Interestingly, in GA a small number of businesses that had been told to shut down have now gotten the green light to open. It's a strange list that I don't fully understand: bowling alleys, tattoo parlours, gyms, hair salons and churches. It isn't a list I'd have created but here we are. Apparently, in-house dining will be returning to restaurants Monday. This adds to the surreal nature of this time and I find myself hanging in the tension of this newly declared permission to patronize places I'd taken for granted up until now (well, not really tattoo parlours, but that's just not my jam). There's a piece of me that clings to these openings as a sign of life, there's a larger piece of me that feels like this is to soon. There's part of me that thinks my hair really isn't all that bad and I'll go a little longer before I venture out in that capacity. I'm quite willing to let other people go ahead of me as the 'firsts'. It's strange though - I think it's responsibility and caution, but if I'm honest it's probably fear too.
When I think about how this sense of fear meshes with my faith, I remember that the bible admonishes us to 'fear not' literally hundreds of times (I've not counted myself), and I hearken back to a favourite children's book, Probity Jones and the Fear Not Angel. But if I'm being 100% honest, I am a little afraid - despite the logic, despite wearing my mask, despite the ample supply of hand sanitizer we've fallen into, despite washing my hands, despite doing my dead level best not to touch my face. I'm not as afraid for myself as I am for people I love - what if I'm that asymptomatic carrier who will pass along this virus to my parents and make them sick? This is such an odd time and I've never had this sense of angst about interfacing with people - I don't like it. I also don't completely like Zoom. Don't get me wrong - I love seeing the people with whom I'm speaking, but I don't like how fake it is/feels. I'm beginning to realize that the Jetsons weren't really people to envy!
The days are coming and going - time consumed by work and strategy and planning and e-learning and math and science and blogs and, and, and. Yet we're right here at home. There's something to be said for places having specific purpose and I find it organizing to have specific parts of life assigned to specific places. I wonder how these next months will play out; I refuse to think about the 2020 flu season in the time of the rona and I look forward to feeling bold enough to go out and about without feeling anxious about the residual effects of my standing beside another human (less than six feet away). I wonder when that anxious-less time will come - when I'll go about life without thinking about the viral rules of engagement. I wonder what stories my children will tell their children about these pandemic months and what lasting imprints this time will leave on all of us. And I'm learning that the fear/wonder dichotomy seems to be here to stay and my goal is to fall more on the side of wonder - it's far more fun and full of life.
This week I'm a bit more frustrated - we don't know what Step One after Shelter in Place will be - what will the limit of group size be? Where will we be able to visit? Interestingly, in GA a small number of businesses that had been told to shut down have now gotten the green light to open. It's a strange list that I don't fully understand: bowling alleys, tattoo parlours, gyms, hair salons and churches. It isn't a list I'd have created but here we are. Apparently, in-house dining will be returning to restaurants Monday. This adds to the surreal nature of this time and I find myself hanging in the tension of this newly declared permission to patronize places I'd taken for granted up until now (well, not really tattoo parlours, but that's just not my jam). There's a piece of me that clings to these openings as a sign of life, there's a larger piece of me that feels like this is to soon. There's part of me that thinks my hair really isn't all that bad and I'll go a little longer before I venture out in that capacity. I'm quite willing to let other people go ahead of me as the 'firsts'. It's strange though - I think it's responsibility and caution, but if I'm honest it's probably fear too.
When I think about how this sense of fear meshes with my faith, I remember that the bible admonishes us to 'fear not' literally hundreds of times (I've not counted myself), and I hearken back to a favourite children's book, Probity Jones and the Fear Not Angel. But if I'm being 100% honest, I am a little afraid - despite the logic, despite wearing my mask, despite the ample supply of hand sanitizer we've fallen into, despite washing my hands, despite doing my dead level best not to touch my face. I'm not as afraid for myself as I am for people I love - what if I'm that asymptomatic carrier who will pass along this virus to my parents and make them sick? This is such an odd time and I've never had this sense of angst about interfacing with people - I don't like it. I also don't completely like Zoom. Don't get me wrong - I love seeing the people with whom I'm speaking, but I don't like how fake it is/feels. I'm beginning to realize that the Jetsons weren't really people to envy!
The days are coming and going - time consumed by work and strategy and planning and e-learning and math and science and blogs and, and, and. Yet we're right here at home. There's something to be said for places having specific purpose and I find it organizing to have specific parts of life assigned to specific places. I wonder how these next months will play out; I refuse to think about the 2020 flu season in the time of the rona and I look forward to feeling bold enough to go out and about without feeling anxious about the residual effects of my standing beside another human (less than six feet away). I wonder when that anxious-less time will come - when I'll go about life without thinking about the viral rules of engagement. I wonder what stories my children will tell their children about these pandemic months and what lasting imprints this time will leave on all of us. And I'm learning that the fear/wonder dichotomy seems to be here to stay and my goal is to fall more on the side of wonder - it's far more fun and full of life.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
33 Days
Today is April 14, that means it has been exactly 33 days since my children, my students and my colleagues and I were in a traditional school environment. In those 33 days, we have learned how to Zoom, we have learned how to be more strategic in our social media posting, we have learned that it is hard to be motivated to get up and dressed every day when you're not allowed to go anywhere with other people and we have very much learned how important it is for our sanity to be connected with other people. Our kids' schools have announced we aren't going back for the remainder of the year, my preschool is out for the rest of the year, our churches are not meeting personally and the places we would go to wander about are banned. It has become common for people to wear masks everywhere we go - my mama made us each custom ones so we can wash and reuse them. People are calling this a 'new normal' and this new normal was punctuated on Easter Sunday by tornadoes.
Y'all - this is categorically NOT normal. I miss seeing other people smile when we cross paths in the produce section. I catch myself mentally calculating how many feet I am standing away from other people, sometimes even in my own home with my own family. My hands look like alligator bags from the washing and sanitizing. Zoom is not a replacement for classrooms or workrooms. And I'm aware that my family is lucky beyond measure - our refrigerator is full, my husband and I are both still working and being paid, our children like school and take it seriously, we have computers and good internet for us to use, our house is a safe place to live. Yet we still have moments when we crumble - our words get short, our tempers flare, the tears flow. I shudder to think about people who don't have resources to make this shelter in place business as bearable as we do and we're trying to help in ways we can. But, I know that the food we donate is not a replacement for a feeling of safety within your own home. I can't imagine the helplessness that must accompany not having tools to do e-learning at home, or parents who have lost a job, or parents who must still go to work leaving children home alone. Our world has stopped only in part and the stoppage is effecting everyone, at a minimum mentally, emotionally and physically. This is hard.
There are upsides - at least at our house - for which I'm deeply grateful. The supplies we had bought some time ago for home projects have been put to good use. We've spiffed up our kitchen (pictures to come later), we've painted, we're finishing trim and thresholds from our pre-quarantine tiling of floors. The projects have been more than conduits to 'kill time' - they have been grounding - starting things that have defined ends. It has been life giving to do physical work that feels transformative. It has been exhausting, but that has made sleep come easy and soundly. Upsides include our foursome watching movies together and laughing together. The sun is shining and our children are learning life skills and how to enjoy neighbours from a safe distance.
I wonder what we adopt in this weird time will last - will we continue to monitor how close we walk to people? We will ever be able to shake hands again? Will we (please God) realize that teachers know best how to teach students and get rid of standardized testing? Will we cease to have board meetings in a physical location and stick with the Zoom model? Will we be able to have summer camps? There are so many questions and so very few answers right now and I find it disorienting. I wonder how I will react once 'shelter in place' is deemed over. Will we rush out to restaurants, to baseball stadiums, to parks? Or will we be hesitant and watch how it goes for the first round of folks who venture out? I wonder if, once we have permission to be back in the world, we will find we have only delayed the inevitable and this virus will rear its head again and we'll find ourselves at square one? It's dizzying really - to let yourself wonder.
But wonder gives rise to hope as well as fear and for that I'm grateful. Hope breaks in in unexpected ways - our teenager and I are driving together and learning and laughing together. My husband is home and we eat 3 meals together each day as a family. We're staying in the same room more and that gives me hope. The fact that the world keeps spinning despite our human pause is hopeful - the sun still rises, Easter still happens, babies are still born. Thank heavens for hope's incessant perseverance, may our eyes never grow blind to it. And may we look for ways that we can add hope for others in whatever distance is permitted. I'm convinced we will get through to the other side of this and I'm convinced we will be called upon to be brave and bold and determined. We don't know what 'returning to normal' will look like - I contend we'll actually have to redefine normal and my biggest hope is our new normal takes the best parts of pre-quarantine time and quarantine time and squishes them together to create a new, bright reality that makes room for us to better hear the harmony of the world's song.
Y'all - this is categorically NOT normal. I miss seeing other people smile when we cross paths in the produce section. I catch myself mentally calculating how many feet I am standing away from other people, sometimes even in my own home with my own family. My hands look like alligator bags from the washing and sanitizing. Zoom is not a replacement for classrooms or workrooms. And I'm aware that my family is lucky beyond measure - our refrigerator is full, my husband and I are both still working and being paid, our children like school and take it seriously, we have computers and good internet for us to use, our house is a safe place to live. Yet we still have moments when we crumble - our words get short, our tempers flare, the tears flow. I shudder to think about people who don't have resources to make this shelter in place business as bearable as we do and we're trying to help in ways we can. But, I know that the food we donate is not a replacement for a feeling of safety within your own home. I can't imagine the helplessness that must accompany not having tools to do e-learning at home, or parents who have lost a job, or parents who must still go to work leaving children home alone. Our world has stopped only in part and the stoppage is effecting everyone, at a minimum mentally, emotionally and physically. This is hard.
There are upsides - at least at our house - for which I'm deeply grateful. The supplies we had bought some time ago for home projects have been put to good use. We've spiffed up our kitchen (pictures to come later), we've painted, we're finishing trim and thresholds from our pre-quarantine tiling of floors. The projects have been more than conduits to 'kill time' - they have been grounding - starting things that have defined ends. It has been life giving to do physical work that feels transformative. It has been exhausting, but that has made sleep come easy and soundly. Upsides include our foursome watching movies together and laughing together. The sun is shining and our children are learning life skills and how to enjoy neighbours from a safe distance.
I wonder what we adopt in this weird time will last - will we continue to monitor how close we walk to people? We will ever be able to shake hands again? Will we (please God) realize that teachers know best how to teach students and get rid of standardized testing? Will we cease to have board meetings in a physical location and stick with the Zoom model? Will we be able to have summer camps? There are so many questions and so very few answers right now and I find it disorienting. I wonder how I will react once 'shelter in place' is deemed over. Will we rush out to restaurants, to baseball stadiums, to parks? Or will we be hesitant and watch how it goes for the first round of folks who venture out? I wonder if, once we have permission to be back in the world, we will find we have only delayed the inevitable and this virus will rear its head again and we'll find ourselves at square one? It's dizzying really - to let yourself wonder.
But wonder gives rise to hope as well as fear and for that I'm grateful. Hope breaks in in unexpected ways - our teenager and I are driving together and learning and laughing together. My husband is home and we eat 3 meals together each day as a family. We're staying in the same room more and that gives me hope. The fact that the world keeps spinning despite our human pause is hopeful - the sun still rises, Easter still happens, babies are still born. Thank heavens for hope's incessant perseverance, may our eyes never grow blind to it. And may we look for ways that we can add hope for others in whatever distance is permitted. I'm convinced we will get through to the other side of this and I'm convinced we will be called upon to be brave and bold and determined. We don't know what 'returning to normal' will look like - I contend we'll actually have to redefine normal and my biggest hope is our new normal takes the best parts of pre-quarantine time and quarantine time and squishes them together to create a new, bright reality that makes room for us to better hear the harmony of the world's song.
Friday, April 3, 2020
Checking In
Today we have concluded the first quarter of 2020 (thanks be to God). I've decided it's time for me to check in on the goals I set for this year to see how I'm doing - considering we are 25% through this revolution around the sun, I'm hoping I've gotten to about that metric with each goal. Granted, part of me is prepared for the most assured 'plot twist' thwarting of these goals; alas, in an effort to maintain some sense of normal, I march on.
Goals for 2020:
I suppose I've got only one goal, but it's got a lot of meat on its bones...I'm going to endeavour to bring life back into BALANCE. Here's my vision of how that will look (as of today):
Let's just stop here for a moment. We're in the preamble and already off track. Balance - ha! The whole world is upside down right now - I'm off to a great start!
- I will leave work at work. I've disabled work email notifications on my phone and will commit to being fully present in the office. I will also be fully present when I'm at home.
Hmmmm - I'm clearly at -12% in terms of progress on this goal as I've actually moved my work INTO my home. Separated no more by physical distance, multiple computers running at once, the only way is up on this one, people. I am doing better, however, about not touching work on weekends. We'll call that a 2% rate of progress and move the overall rating to negative ten percent growth.
- I will move more. Self-care will be a priority - not on the bottom of the list, but at the top. I will take better care of myself physically so I am better able to engage with my family, friends and colleagues.
The reduction in commute time from home to office has negatively impacted my daily step goal. However, the sanity preservation measures now in place have overcome that negative impact as multiple dog walks have become critical in this time of Corona. Therefore, I squarely mark progress on this goal at 15%, bringing our overall level of progress into the positive by a whopping 10%.
- I will tend to my mental, spiritual and emotional health and encourage my children to do the same. This will look different ways - reading, engaging in soul level conversations, writing more.
I'm actually laughing out loud now - how naive I was a mere 3.5 months ago! Mental health is now a combination of crying, dog walking, an adult beverage here and there and the hope that one day we will go out to eat and sit at a restaurant. It has become clear of late that I'm obsessive about crumbs on the kitchen counter and I've identified that reality as a trigger for me. We'll call that self-awareness and allot a 2% progress on said goal. Spiritual health - I'm doing better on this as my daily prayers have increased exponentially - it matters not that said prayers often contain language including, "Please Lord do not let me blow my top...again. I'm reading more and our family has had wonderful soul level conversations so that, combined with prayer, gets us to a solid 15% progress on this goal. I've not been as committed to writing as I'd like, this year has caused me to spend more time strategizing than pontificating. However, with Wednesdays announcement that schools are out for the academic year, I see mental/spiritual/emotional health being tightly wound in this medium going forward. I'll give me 2% progress so far, but anticipate healthy gains in the near term. I'm at a whopping 17% progress on this goal. Go me.
- I will set boundaries so that our whole family has times of rest - acknowledging that no one is able to do all the things, and that everyone needs to learn to choose what is life giving to them.
I'd like to thank the Covid-19 for assisting in the near 100% achievement of this goal. Rest is in abundance these days and the pendulum now swings the other way - making sure we stay engaged somehow without being around people. We're at a solid 75% on this one, y'all.
- I will be fully present with my children and husband. Time is running short on the days when all four of us live under one, single roof - it's gone so quickly and I don't want to miss a minute.
Cue. The. Laugh. Track. Part of me feels almost clairvoyant having even typed this a mere 95ish days ago! I actually am enjoying, mostly, having our little brood under one roof. Playing games, watching movies, no Mama Taxi, these are good gifts for which I'm grateful. We're sitting at a solid 50% and by the time the rona leaves the building, I'm confident we'll have nailed this one completely. I hope that we don't forget it too quickly once the movement hither and yon resumes, because I'm fully aware it's a gift.
- I will enjoy living closer to family. We live closer to our parents and my sister, brother-in-law and nephews than we did for 4 years and while we don't see each other super often, I want the time we share to be meaningful.
This is a kick in the gut - if I had Alanis Morisette handy, I'd be playing her Ironic. We live closer to family for sure, but we're not able to visit. We're trying to figure out ways to interact meaningfully regardless. I suppose the good news is we had 4 years living nearly 4000 miles from one another to practice. It doesn't make it easier tho. We sit squarely at 15% and I don't see that improving any time real soon.
- I will talk with dear friends more regularly.
This coming week is "Spring Break" - ha! The gift of that break within a break is the opportunity to unplug and actually make this happen. Today I sit at a full on 10% progress (pitiful, indeed), but next week I plan to ratchet that up to near 50%. The real goal is sustainability...we'll see how that goes.
All in all 2020 has been a humdinger! And I must say that just when I thought I'd seen most everything that could be dished out, this Covid business came out of left field and surprised the heck out of me! I'm more aware now of the gift of time, the gift of personal space, the gift of living with people I love and like. And I hope this "Great Pause" has lasting effects in the way we live life. While I'm sick of crumbs on the counter, there's something lovely about being in our home. There's something fun about laughing together and not rushing to the next thing. There's glory in not having to even say the words 'standardized tests'. While it's not all a picnic, I'm curious to see how we adjust permanently to this temporary normal. Cheers to the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Goals for 2020:
I suppose I've got only one goal, but it's got a lot of meat on its bones...I'm going to endeavour to bring life back into BALANCE. Here's my vision of how that will look (as of today):
Let's just stop here for a moment. We're in the preamble and already off track. Balance - ha! The whole world is upside down right now - I'm off to a great start!
- I will leave work at work. I've disabled work email notifications on my phone and will commit to being fully present in the office. I will also be fully present when I'm at home.
Hmmmm - I'm clearly at -12% in terms of progress on this goal as I've actually moved my work INTO my home. Separated no more by physical distance, multiple computers running at once, the only way is up on this one, people. I am doing better, however, about not touching work on weekends. We'll call that a 2% rate of progress and move the overall rating to negative ten percent growth.
- I will move more. Self-care will be a priority - not on the bottom of the list, but at the top. I will take better care of myself physically so I am better able to engage with my family, friends and colleagues.
The reduction in commute time from home to office has negatively impacted my daily step goal. However, the sanity preservation measures now in place have overcome that negative impact as multiple dog walks have become critical in this time of Corona. Therefore, I squarely mark progress on this goal at 15%, bringing our overall level of progress into the positive by a whopping 10%.
- I will tend to my mental, spiritual and emotional health and encourage my children to do the same. This will look different ways - reading, engaging in soul level conversations, writing more.
I'm actually laughing out loud now - how naive I was a mere 3.5 months ago! Mental health is now a combination of crying, dog walking, an adult beverage here and there and the hope that one day we will go out to eat and sit at a restaurant. It has become clear of late that I'm obsessive about crumbs on the kitchen counter and I've identified that reality as a trigger for me. We'll call that self-awareness and allot a 2% progress on said goal. Spiritual health - I'm doing better on this as my daily prayers have increased exponentially - it matters not that said prayers often contain language including, "Please Lord do not let me blow my top...again. I'm reading more and our family has had wonderful soul level conversations so that, combined with prayer, gets us to a solid 15% progress on this goal. I've not been as committed to writing as I'd like, this year has caused me to spend more time strategizing than pontificating. However, with Wednesdays announcement that schools are out for the academic year, I see mental/spiritual/emotional health being tightly wound in this medium going forward. I'll give me 2% progress so far, but anticipate healthy gains in the near term. I'm at a whopping 17% progress on this goal. Go me.
- I will set boundaries so that our whole family has times of rest - acknowledging that no one is able to do all the things, and that everyone needs to learn to choose what is life giving to them.
I'd like to thank the Covid-19 for assisting in the near 100% achievement of this goal. Rest is in abundance these days and the pendulum now swings the other way - making sure we stay engaged somehow without being around people. We're at a solid 75% on this one, y'all.
- I will be fully present with my children and husband. Time is running short on the days when all four of us live under one, single roof - it's gone so quickly and I don't want to miss a minute.
Cue. The. Laugh. Track. Part of me feels almost clairvoyant having even typed this a mere 95ish days ago! I actually am enjoying, mostly, having our little brood under one roof. Playing games, watching movies, no Mama Taxi, these are good gifts for which I'm grateful. We're sitting at a solid 50% and by the time the rona leaves the building, I'm confident we'll have nailed this one completely. I hope that we don't forget it too quickly once the movement hither and yon resumes, because I'm fully aware it's a gift.
- I will enjoy living closer to family. We live closer to our parents and my sister, brother-in-law and nephews than we did for 4 years and while we don't see each other super often, I want the time we share to be meaningful.
This is a kick in the gut - if I had Alanis Morisette handy, I'd be playing her Ironic. We live closer to family for sure, but we're not able to visit. We're trying to figure out ways to interact meaningfully regardless. I suppose the good news is we had 4 years living nearly 4000 miles from one another to practice. It doesn't make it easier tho. We sit squarely at 15% and I don't see that improving any time real soon.
- I will talk with dear friends more regularly.
This coming week is "Spring Break" - ha! The gift of that break within a break is the opportunity to unplug and actually make this happen. Today I sit at a full on 10% progress (pitiful, indeed), but next week I plan to ratchet that up to near 50%. The real goal is sustainability...we'll see how that goes.
All in all 2020 has been a humdinger! And I must say that just when I thought I'd seen most everything that could be dished out, this Covid business came out of left field and surprised the heck out of me! I'm more aware now of the gift of time, the gift of personal space, the gift of living with people I love and like. And I hope this "Great Pause" has lasting effects in the way we live life. While I'm sick of crumbs on the counter, there's something lovely about being in our home. There's something fun about laughing together and not rushing to the next thing. There's glory in not having to even say the words 'standardized tests'. While it's not all a picnic, I'm curious to see how we adjust permanently to this temporary normal. Cheers to the end of the first quarter of 2020.
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