Silver Linings

"There's no great loss without some small gain."

 Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

 

Two months out from a year of living with lock-downs, shut downs, masks and social distancing and it seems as novel as the night I got a call from my boss telling me not to come into work the next day. It was supposed to be for two weeks...It's easy to dwell on everything that we cannot do and everything that we've lost in the past year. If we allow ourselves that indulgence then we miss out on appreciating some small gains altogether. Don't get me wrong. There's a time to grieve and mourn, but when that time has past, then it's time to take stock (and maybe stock up) and move on.

It's tempting to remain in a constant state of waiting for things to return to the way they were. I've always been, however, more process oriented than product oriented. That is, the journey to wherever it is that I'm going is as intriguing as the destination. The dash between point A and B needs to be embraced to get the most out of this thing called life. Destination "normalcy" (as in life before COVID) may be a mirage. I'm inclined to believe that we know not what kind of world awaits us on the other end of this journey.

Therefore I choose to focus, or at the very least constantly remind myself, of all the little things that I count as benefits of the past year. In fact the best thing of the past year is no small thing at all. Unprecedented time with my family. With my ability to work from home, the girls primarily doing their schooling online from home and my wife and son already at home...we've spent nearly every day together for the past 10 months. It's a good thing we love each other otherwise this would be a lot harder. There's no one else I'd want to be in lock down with. There has been lots of family games, walks, stories, movies and generally just hanging-out time...time well spent. 

My mom used to have a quote up on a white board at the ol' homestead, "Time wasted is not spent but lost..." Or something like that. The reverse is even more poignant. Time well spent is an investment and never lost. This time that I've been able to invest in my family is precious and I'm sure we will reap the dividends of tighter bonds. 

Who knows how long this journey to the end of the pandemic will take or what it will look like when we get there. Even as I look forward to that day when we regain some sense of normalcy, I will not lose today with all of its blessings while I wait for tomorrow.