Pandemic Lessons

Yes. It's a new world. How are you adjusting? I'd like to say I've adjusted well but I'm still a work in progress. This all started while we were still in Florida so the first few weeks for us were not too bad. We could get out in the nice weather and there was even Pickleball still being played although between games we were socially distancing.

The anxiety grew though. As word that Ohio was closing down and more states were considering it, we wondered what the trip home might be like. Would we even be able to travel home? Suddenly, Northeast Ohio weather aside, home was looking good. And once we made it home, there was a sense of relief despite all the changes created by COVID. Lesson One: home is a good place to be in a crisis.

Once we were stocked up on food and yes, I even managed to find a few packages of TP, we hunkered down. While thoughts of places to go and people to see crossed our minds, we realized that those activities that were so near and dear were not going to happen. Lesson Two: friends are precious.

Lesson Three: routine is good but needs variety. When Bob retired we settled into a new routine and now we find ourselves searching for a few adjustments that fit in with the new normal we are all living in. We look for ways to keep that routine interesting. Finding a time slot for at least one walk a day (not always easy when the weather turns nasty as it does around here in spring). Looking for new places to walk--we have some great parks in our area. Going for a drive just to be out. Playing lots of Hand and Foot--our favorite card game. Going out for lunch at a fast food drive thru and eating in the parking lot.

Grocery shopping has always been a chore for me. Yes, I've said it many times. "I'd rather stay home and clean toilets." Lesson Four: shopping for groceries may not be so bad after all even with a mask on. It's a little contact with others albeit from a distance.

Lesson Five: reading while tuning into the Easy Listening channel on the TV is relaxing. I think I may have known this from childhood though. I've always been a reader. In a normal year I read between 30-45 books. I'm already up to 21 and we're only about a third of the way through the year. Of course the reading and relaxing hasn't done much for my writing and my blogging but maybe that's beginning to fall into routine as well.

Lesson Six: Worship, praise, and prayer are essential and can be very creative. We tune into two worship services each Sunday--our home church and our home church away from home in Florida. There's also coffee twice a week with the pastor from Florida and when Easter morning was cold, rainy and cloudy here, we were able to watch the sunrise service on the Florida shore. We even got a brief look at the sunrise service of a third church whose pastor was live on FB from a graveyard. Lots of creative ways have given us inspiration and hope through Zoom choirs and social media.

I'm sure there are more lessons that I could list but as I sit here and watch the snow fall in a mid-April change in the weather, I wonder, what lessons have you learned?