Almost two years ago, I was texting with my cousin (who is a doctor), asking her if this coronavirus thing was really worth canceling events. Looking back, I feel completely ridiculous even having asked that question now.
In that time, I feel sometimes like I’ve learned so much. But yet, sometimes I feel like I’ve learned nothing at all. Let me share three stories from our recent Rona’tine to show you what I mean.
The thing I had learned was to give myself grace.
The ‘rona recently hit our house – even being cautious, we couldn’t avoid it. Sadly, the first one down was our five-year-old. He also was the first to rebound.
On one of his sick days, I worked an hour … did an hour with him … on repeat. Probably too much screen time, but he ate, homework was done, my work was completed, a box fort was built. It was a good day.
But, then my husband went down, then I fell sick, and it was a rough few days. There were fights over homework and screen time. An internal countdown for when Josh’s 10 days at home would be over really started to drag. I needed to remind myself that this was a struggle for all of us, and in the end, we were doing our best. And in the end— yep, we were ok.
Another thing I had learned was it just takes 10 minutes.
With everyone feeling down, I had forgotten to set aside time to meditate. And I could tell. The first summer of the pandemic (I never thought there would be a second), I found myself unemployed and uncertain. The kiddo went back to daycare part-time, so, on a whim, I signed up for the free Science of Well-Being class thru Coursera/Yale. My husband poked fun (“Well, yeah, if you exercise, you’re happier), but I learned a lot about myself and picked up some new tools along the way.
One of the core things I learned in class was the importance of meditation. I always thought it wasn’t for me. I’m not one to sit still in quiet for prolonged periods of time. But one of my homework assignments was to try it. I set a goal of 10 minutes a day and went an entire month. I have not been as perfect with my practice since, but when I take just 10 minutes to do it, I am much better at taking a moment to breathe when tempers are flaring and being more patient with everyone in my house.
The last thing I learned was that a little bit of Mother Nature does the soul good … and my kid says the darndest things.
On one of our quarantine/isolation days (I don’t know how they’re classified anymore), Josh was stir crazy. It was over 50 degrees outside, so after a brief bickering fit, we piled on hats and coats and decided to take a lap around our neighborhood. I let him decide if we went right, left, or straight. And we chatted the entire walk.
His conversations meandered from telling some neighbors, “It’s a great day for a walk” (which resulted in some laughs) to his thoughts on Mother Nature and asking why people would leave their trash everywhere. I promised him we would bring gloves and bags on our next walk to clean up some of the litter.
At the end of our walk came the aha moment. We sat on our front porch, and I asked him, “What is your favorite part of Mother Nature?” He replied, “My favorite part of Mother Nature is the trees because they look like ballet dancers in the wind with their leaves.” None of the trees had leaves, but as I let his words soak in, I could totally see the ballerinas on their tippy-toes swaying to the breeze.
The last two years have been rough. Every time I think “I got this,” something comes flying in from left, right, or center field. And every time that curveball comes, I need to remember the things that I have learned. Give me, and the others around me, grace. Take the time to reset daily (or as close to daily as I can get). Get out for an adventure; you never know what you’ll learn about yourself and your walking partner.
Good blog
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