Almost Time to Go Back Out

Checking the news reports each day this week, I anxiously awaited a statement by our Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, regarding the approaching deadline for our March 31 executive order titled “Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected”.  Just hours before the last day of the order, Governor Ducey declared an extension to May 15^th with modifications.

“We are putting public safety and public health first,” Ducey said.  Was I happy or sad to hear this news?  Honestly, I felt both emotions, plus a variety of others.  Though I am eager to return to normal, some startling thoughts come to mind. 

First, we can go out into public with all the people we have been avoiding for 4 weeks.  That makes me a little nervous, not sure about you.  Can I remember how to drive to places I haven’t visited in a month?  Come on, it sounds crazy, but haven’t you been on the road driving around and get that feeling of, “Wow, this feels weird driving out on the road.  I want to go back home!” 

Second, regardless of the tension and craziness of being quarantined at home with my high school and college aged children, with both my husband and I working at home, I will really miss this time.  There, I said it.  I totally miss my students at school, but this time at home has had many benefits.

A form of grief comes over me as I know I’ll miss the simplicity of just staying home.  Dinner time discussions with all five of us actually sitting at the table together have been so stimulating and memorable.  Seeing my kids hang out in their hammocks, the do-it-yourself home gym in the backyard using jugs of sand and the sound of my son Ryan’s music for his workouts will be but a memory.  All the innovative and creative ideas my kids have come up with.  I will miss this.

The question arises, “How do we return to THAT?” – going out in public again and the busy lives we lived.  It all seems a bit foreign and uneasy.

As I ponder so many thoughts, one repeatedly pops into my head.   I don’t want to return to my life EXACTLY how it was.  I like the stillness and creativity of such a time as this.  I want quality family time and teamwork ton continue on as a priority.  How great to see my children step up and be in charge of meals and even at times tucking ME into bed, because I am wiped out way before they wind down.

My new healthy routines of exercise, reading, writing (me time) that I have interwoven into my school work schedule; please Lord, don’t let it change.  How about you?  Have you worked hard to develop a productive routine being at home?  I grow more efficient each week, and I don’t want to go back to my old ways.

Being a teacher thrown into a new format of home based education has SUPERLY (I made that word up during this time at home) stretched my brain.  I had no idea I could become fluent in SeeSaw icon language, grow into an official YouTuber with my video lesson creations, host the most hilarious and engaging Zoom meetings with my students who range from grades 1-6, and rebuild my school lessons to fit an online platform. 

SO MANY OF US have been thrown into new aggrandizing tasks.  Like that word?  It means to widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend.  At the beginning of this HUGE shift in our lifestyles, if you were like me, there were moments of “face plants” on the floor, singing, “I can’t do this anymore!”

Compassion, grace, and kindness have all become integral pieces to this quarantine puzzle.  We are part of history, friends!  This – We WILL be in history books.  Within this puzzle, let us not forget all the emotions and experiences – the good and the bad.  We will become stronger because of all this.  God has given us strong wills to not only survive, but to thrive.  It just may look a little different right now.

Look at us!!  We did it!!  Who knows what else we can do after accomplishing such feats.  But, yes, now with a Stay at Home extension for a couple of weeks, may we take time to ponder, reflect, prepare and plan ahead for how we will live in our “new normal”.  May we not return the same.

P.S. Don’t forget to add SUPERLY to your computer dictionary!