What I am Learning

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This is from Twitter, with “What I am Learning in Quarantine” trending right now.

Here are some of my favorite answers from the thread:

+How easy it is to practice social distancing from a scale

+My procrastination skills are more expert than I thought they were

+Being a homebody saves money

+I now use my phone to find out what day it is

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+Pets really do make the best coworkers

+That teachers are not paid enough

+How to use the least amount of toilet paper as humanly possible

+I’m not very good at social distancing from the refrigerator

+I love eating more than I love cooking

+I miss my kids being toddlers, learned no one ever . . . .

+It’s easy to take the simple things for granted

For me, I’ve learned that I think that I might actually be enjoying this forced, “no guilt” slowing down of my life. I feel incredibly grateful for my family and for our health and I’ve learned the fact that we still live together, pretty peacefully, in close quarters, despite all of the kids being grown up and having lived on their own. I am grateful for the ability to Face Time our eldest son in New Jersey and I am grateful to have learned that he is a wise, careful, conscientious young man, with cabinets full of beans and dry goods. I’ve learned that he can take very good care of himself. I’ve learned that I’m more grateful for the ability to text friends and family than I ever realized. I love the instant ability to connect and to laugh and to cry about this situation at the same time, together, even while we’re apart. I’ve learned that my dogs and other people’s dogs are the best entertainers/therapists/company/exercise physiologists/huggers/intuitives on the face of the earth and I love them even more than I did before. I’ve learned that nature is a meditation unto itself and there is nothing more beautiful than the wildness of our Earth and its creatures and it’s a renewing treasure that has been given to all of us, for free. I’ve learned that doctors and nurses have a level of bravery and a stoicism that is almost unfathomable. I’ve learned that I feel grateful that there are people out there with the inclination to want to lead and to manage our communities, and our states and our countries and to try to discern and to make the best decisions for everyone. I’ve learned that I have more compassion and less contempt for our leaders through all of this. They’ve taken on “Mission Impossible” with a great deal of energy and courage and hope. I’ve learned that if I let myself feel all of my feelings and I try not to judge them, they flow through me, in a very fluid way. Sad doesn’t stay at sad. And anger is good at burning itself out pretty quickly. I’ve learned that at my very core, there is a serene peace and acceptance that inherently knows that everything is alright. Despite all of the outer turmoil, and fear and uncertainty, we are all okay and we are all going to be just fine.

Fortune for the Day -“When you possess light within, you see it externally.” – Anais Lin