I’ve always lived a busy life. When I was a kid, my mom let my sister and me take piano lessons, dance lessons, join the soccer team, perform in the school drill team, be part of the church youth group and youth choir, and all kinds of other things that required her to drive us all around town at all hours of the day. I know I’m a more well-rounded adult as a result of all of the things I learned as a kid.
But I also remember some days that I rooted for a rain day. My soccer team had early Saturday morning games in a set of fields we called the river bottoms. It was the overflow flood lands for the Trinity river as it flowed through North Texas. If there was a steady rain on Friday, our games would be cancelled so we had an unexpected free morning. There was just something about the gift of free hours to be at home with time to do something or nothing at all.
In some crazy way, the beginning of the Covid-19 quarantine felt like a rain day. My life had gotten busy as I worked to squeeze in just one more thing. I worked full time, drove about an hour each way to the office and sometimes drove multiple hours to a remote site to present a workshop. I had a daughter who was busy in school activities, which my husband and I faithfully attended. I had church events including teaching a youth Sunday School class and singing and playing in the praise band. So to have life stop on a dime with the message to stay at home wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
To be clear, I was highly concerned about the Corona virus and keeping my family safe. I had major anxiety the first time I shopped wearing a mask while trying to stay six feet away from everyone else. But working from home with more family time and dinners at the kitchen table was an unexpected blessing.
The quarantine is now measured in months rather than days and weeks and I’m still a bit anxious about keeping my family safe, but I am now working on reaching a new rhythm. As with many other Americans, I was let go from my job so I’m readjusting and figuring out what’s next. Writing a blog and crafting for others is a big part of that next step for me.
It still raises my blood pressure a bit to don a mask and shop with purpose so I spend as little time as possible around strangers, but my plan is to do my level best to enjoy the now. The year 2020 will make a great story someday. And just like looking back through an old photo album to imagine what it was like, I will someday try to describe this whole experience to my future grandchildren. Because we are living in the middle of an adventure, and we don’t yet know the ending. So until it ends, just like on a rainy Saturday morning, I’m going to remember to pause and breathe.
