Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Soon the dumpster will be gone, our remodel will be finished, and we’ll be able to see the back yard from our living room window again. But for now, and for several months now, we’ve had this huge monstrosity in the way. It’ll sure be nice once it’s over. It’s pretty wild remodeling half the house while living in the other half. We have a pod full of stuff that has to come back in, too. But when it comes time to do that, we’ll probably be picky about what makes it back in. Some stuff will be tossed, some given away, maybe even sell off a few things. Stirring things up will kind of force us to look at the things we’ve accumulated and dump what is no longer necessary. This will probably be a good thing in the long run. But life seems scattered while in the midst of it, unsettled. And that’s how life is for almost everyone these days with the pandemic quarantine. Our routines are shot. Can’t really go very many places – restaurants and bars just doing take out, hair salons and gyms are closed, banks are drive through only, there’s no live music at all… streets are oddly quiet. They say it takes about two months to create a habit – 66 days before a new behavior becomes automatic. We’ll be well on our way to creating new habits before we ever get our freedom to move back again. Then what?… will everything just go back to normal overnight? I doubt it. We’ll have new habits and routines by then, and as creatures of habit and routine, the new habits will be hard to break once they’re in place. And for some of us, maybe we’ve created new habits that are really good for us, that we enjoy, that we might never have gotten to without being somewhat forced into it. Why would we choose to go backwards if that was the case? The pandemic has affected all of our lives, and will continue to do so for an undetermined amount of time. Maybe forever. But, as I mentioned last week, every setback creates opportunities as well. We have the opportunity here to really think about what we’re doing with our time. It’s like all our routines and habits went into the pod, and we have these new lifestyles. When the pod doors open, and the old routines become available again – maybe we’ll see there were a few that we don’t want back. These are very unsettling times. They force us to look at what’s important, how we spend our time, how precious every moment is. And in the end – ten years from now – maybe we can look back on the effects it’s had on our lives and say the changes we made were the best thing that ever happened to us. That is the opportunity here. It’s always been an opportunity – to be more focused on habits and routines that serve us – but times like these create the impetus to actually do it. I wish you all the best as you work your way through the changes everyone is dealing with right now. The worst of times can set us up for the best of times. What can you do to add more value to your present moments?…
