mommy blog Archives - Page 13 of 20 - Adulting: Second- Half

Is it Worth It?

calculated risk. A chance taken after careful estimation of the probable outcome, as in Taking their dispute to arbitration was definitely a calculated risk. This term uses calculated in the sense of “planned with forethought,” a usage from the mid-1800s. (Dictionary.com)

Risk is simply the potential of loss. Higher the loss higher is the risk in any deal or personal life. Limiting your chances of losses is called a calculated risk. It means taking up a deal with a certain level of loss already known which you are ready to bear. (quora)

Why are we exhausted and fatigued and worn out and full of mind fog these days? Could it be something to do with the fact that almost EVERYTHING that we choose to do these days, from the moment we open our eyes and roll out of bed, is a calculated risk? Today, my daughter and I are going to go to our hair salon for only the second time since our state opened back up in the beginning of May. And yet I have butterflies. The deadline for school options for my daughter’s high school was Monday (we chose the online version for the first nine weeks). Our college boys are deciding when to head back to their university, despite the fact that all classes will be online. Our eldest son is supposed to come visit us next week. He will be flying. None of these decisions would have made me lose nary a wink of sleep, at this same time last year. And I wonder why my shoulders are permanently attached to my ears this summer?!?

Below is an excerpt from a Psychology Today article, by Dr. Marcia Reynolds, giving more explanation about how to make decisions about risks. Just remember that it is only your job to make your own decisions. You can get help, and you can offer help, to brainstorm various pros and cons of your decisions and the decisions of your loved ones, but in the end, each of us has to make our own decisions that are best for each of us, with the full realization that we bear the consequences of our decisions. Decision making can be complicated and emotional, and this is exponentially so, these days. Let’s be kind to one another, and hold on to the idea that each of us is doing the best we can with the myriad of weighty decisions (because these days, all of our decisions carry some weight) which we are making on a daily basis.

“Here are some guidelines to help you determine if your risk is worth taking:

Use a sounding board. Your brain wants to keep you within your personal safety zone, which differs for each situation depending on past experiences and your taste for challenge. It is better to talk through options with someone who will not be affected by your choice. Also, don’t choose someone who likes to tell others what they should do (especially family). As you explain the pros and cons of risking, notice how you feel. How badly do you want what the risk will give you? Do your reasons make you feel proud or satisfied? Your emotions may indicate how important taking the risk is to you.
Note – Try the Coin Trick. Assign your options to heads or tails. Flip the coin. The moment you see the result, are you disappointed or relieved? The trick might help you uncover what you really want to do.
Catch your “shoulds.” It’s hard to make a decision when you are attached to other people’s opinions. What do you think they will say if you take the risk? Write these statements down to identify your fears of their judgements and your guilt about disappointing others. Recognition of your should-based actions can also free you from black-and-white, stay or go, decisions. You might find other options available to you when you clearly understand what you want for yourself in the future.
Know your why. Be mindful of being driven by needs for recognition or acceptance. When you assess the value of your risk, what type of satisfaction do you gain? What outcome will you be most proud of over time? What would you do if you had no people to take care of or please? Twenty years from now, what would you love to tell people about the risk you took? What story do you want to be living?

For life-changing risks, consider the strengths you love to exercise. Can you envision using these strengths in a deeply satisfying way? Activist Audre Lorde said, “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strengths in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Ask your heart and gut. Although the science of intuition is debatable, you may get insights from this exercise. After you list out the pros and cons, open your heart by looking at pictures that make you smile. You probably have shots on your phone of your family, pets, or sunrises. Once you feel joy or gratitude, ask your heart if the risk feels right. Review your pros and cons from this perspective. Then open your gut by recalling a time in your life when you spoke up or acted in spite of your fear. Feel your courage pulse in your gut. Then ask your gut what to do. Use this perspective to determine new ways to deal with possible consequences.
Be honest about what could go wrong. Don’t ignore hazards. When you look at possible problems, how would you handle them? When I left my last job to start my business, I knew if I failed, I would find another job. Fear can blind you to your options once you take a risk. Consider bad outcomes, determine the likelihood they will happen, and what you would do next.

If you decide the risk is worth taking, commit to taking a few steps, even if the steps are small. You might read a book, have a conversation with someone about the direction you want to take, or sign up for a class on starting a business. Do something to keep moving. Then, if things don’t go as you hoped for, allow for self-correction. Learn along the way.

No matter what you decide, you will encounter difficulties. You will question your choices. You may even find your choice was just a step to the next as you create many chapters in your life.

Which risks will you regret NOT making a year from now? Decide what risks are worth taking and take the first step today.”

Krazy Glue

As school approaches, and reflecting upon that fact, there are so many times I have thanked my lucky stars that my children are mostly grown and very self sufficient. I cannot fathom what it has been like to try to home school young children, while possibly holding down a job, on top of all of the worries about health concerns and what is going on with the economy right now. Raising young children is an all-encompassing, draining yet exhilarating, 24/7 gig, in good, normal, peaceful times. Raising young children during a pandemic would be enough to put anyone over-the-top. I read an article that had compiled some of the latest, funniest quotes by young parents on Twitter. Here are a few:

“I love that my 6 yr old enjoys watching Jeopardy even if she just announced she wants a Nano Knee brand knee replacement” (Molly Erdman)

“I don’t like to brag but I had 19 seconds earlier where none of my kids yelled, cried, peed on the floor or asked if we can adopt a pigeon and call it Peppa” (MumInBits)

“You think you are in charge of your house until your kid gets out of bed and you panic and hide the ice cream you are eating.” (Simon Holland)

“I’d rather hear my toddler say the F-word than “Again!” (Molly McNearney)

Still, (even though this well-kept secret, doesn’t quite dawn on you, until a few years into parenting – Nature must have designed it that way, for the sake of evolution), parenting is a LIFETIME gig. It’s like being appointed to the Supreme Court, except totally and completely without the power, the prestige, the respect nor the quiet, stately office space. So yesterday, I was having a group text meltdown, support meeting with some fellow mamas of almost grown children. We’re used to having our college kids home for a few months out of the summer, but during normal times, our almost grown children are usually busy with summer jobs at the beach, or waiting tables, and then hanging out with hoards of friends, or going to sporting events or parties and concerts and usually, those couple of months of summer, are broken up by a week or so, of a memorable, relaxing, family vacation, escaping to parts unknown for a teeny bit (just a smidge) of family togetherness. Granted, I have saved a lot of money on Uber rides lately (a charge that we have always made clear, will NEVER be questioned, by us, on the credit card statement), but the family togetherness that we all have been experiencing, since the middle of March, is A LOT. And the understandable resentment and disappointment that our almost grown children are feeling, about not getting to experience the usual, much anticipated rites of passage and coming of age experiences, tends to get directed towards the people who love them the most, and who are most concerned about their health and their safety and their futures – their parents.

Dads seem to have a magical way of rising above all of the negative vibes floating around the household (even without sports to watch on TV), but we mamas soak all of the negativity in, like miracle grow sponge creatures, and we worry and we feel sad for everyone. We worry about our spouses and their work stresses and their health and their sanity. We worry about our kids and we feel sad about everything that they are missing out on, since “normal life” went right out the window, this spring. We mamas worry about our aging relatives, our aging neighbors, and we worry about our friends and their families’ stresses. We mamas worry about our coworkers, the medical workers and grocery store personnel in our communities, and we certainly worry about our kids’ teachers. We worry and feel sad for our pets, wondering if they are soaking in all of the craziness that we are feeling. We mamas worry about the politicians, at every level, and all of the crazy, spur of the moment decisions that have to be made by these leaders – these decisions that affect almost everyone, in some way, these days. In short, our prayer boxes are stuffed. The lids won’t stay on them.

And then the resentment starts creeping in. Who in the hell is worrying about us mamas? Who is thinking about how all of this has affected our lives? Everyone in our families looks to us to reassure them, to comfort them, to be the sounding boards for them, to help them make difficult decisions about their upcoming schooling, and to help them to understand and accept the limits that should be set. Our families need us mamas to be the punching bags for all that is wrong in the world. And we can take it. Mother Nature designed it that way. We women are incredibly strong. As I stated earlier, it’s an evolution thing. That’s why it is so good for us mamas (no matter what ages our kids are) to have girlfriends to lament to, who totally and completely understand. It’s not just protesters who need A Wall of Moms to lean on. Apparently, most of the world, needs A Wall of Moms, and so do we moms. We moms need A Wall of Moms. Luckily and blessedly, we have each other to lean on, even if it is just in our minds. Being properly socially distanced, we link arms (proverbially) and we provide shoulders to each other, to lay our heads on, in order to rest. Our hearts find each other’s energy, and the wall of light and love, that this energy creates is so loving, so warm, so strong and reassuring, so knowing, so understanding, so calming, and so faithful and reliable, that we soak it all in, to sustain us, for another day of parenting in this pandemic. No matter what the ages of our kids, the subjects or sizes of our families, we women are the heart of it all, and we know it. Or maybe it’s more than that. A little humor always helps. SpacedMom on Twitter says it best:

“I’m the Krazy Glue that holds my family together.”

I Offer You This Blessing

I love perfume. I own bottles and bottles of it. The sense of smell easily is one of my favorite senses. Recently, I purchased a bottle of Wen perfume. The scent is okay – nice and light and minty and fresh, but the best part of the purchase, is the blessing that came with it, printed on the perfume box. It’s such a good blessing that I cut it out of the box and I placed it on my desk, front and center. It’s such a good blessing that I would like to pass it on to you, my friends:

“May you be blessed with light, love, hope, strength, faith, joy, truth, honesty, understanding, wisdom, harmony, prosperity, success, health and happiness in all of the years to come. “

I highly recommend that you take this blessing, offered to you in love, and in gratitude and in earnest appreciation, soak it in, and print it out. Place it somewhere that you will see it every single day. (My husband’s grandparents used to tape blessings and Bible verses on their bathroom mirrors – a warm, wise practice which I have copied, over the years) Read it while you have a nice scented candle lit, or when you are petting your beloved pet, or while you are gazing at your favorite family photo – doing this, so that you associate your blessing with a wonderful, sensory experience.

Have an amazing day, my dear, dear friends! May your day be filled with light, love, hope, strength, faith, joy, truth, honesty, understanding, wisdom, harmony, prosperity, success, health and happiness!

25 Blessed Quotes - Inspirational Quotes About Being Blessed in Life

Boring

How is everyone doing out there? You have been awfully quiet lately. One of my all-time favorite things, in life, is “adventuring.” Certainly, I like vacations and far away trips, but I savor every day adventures, too. I like going to towns around me and trying out restaurants and going into quaint, unique stores, that I have never been to before. I like lingering in coffee shops and soaking in the ambiance, unique to that particular location. I like mixing my clothes and accessories into new ensembles and I get giddy when those ensembles just seem to fit together, in a whole new fresh way. I enjoy opening a new book, with eager anticipation, or starting a new, engaging TV series or a new, fun game on my phone. I like buying new perfumes or lipsticks with the idea that I will finally find my “holy grail” product and I will never, ever stray from it, for the rest of my life, or until it is discontinued and I have to treasure hunt for it on ebay. I like to adventure on hiking trails that are new to me, with the promise of the possibility of happening upon a plant or an animal that I have never witnessed in the wild, before.

I’ve been a bit mopey and lazy lately. I’ve convinced myself that my adventures have been curtailed and ruined. I’ve been telling myself how boring and mundane and routine and limited life has become with this coronavirus situation, at hand. I’ve had myself a pretty little pity party, in my own little wah-wah, dull blue corner, which I have painted myself into, these days.

I pride myself in my creativity and my thinking outside of the box, so it is time for me, to oil that ingenuity gear in my brain, and get excited again. Dust it off, girl!! It is time for some self reflection on areas of my life, that I am just going through the motions. Is it time to try some new grocery stores and give some interesting, unusual new recipes, a go? Is it time to try to read a genre of book that I typically don’t gravitate to? Does it matter that even though I don’t socialize much at all anymore, to still take the time to get a cool outfit together and like what I see in the mirror? Can I get excited about losing a few extra pounds, by setting a weight loss goal and get motivated by trying to achieve it? My life and my fulfillment is my responsibility. If I’m bored, I need to find constructive ways to fix that for myself, instead of destructive, self defeating behaviors and thought patterns, that just swallow me up in my own wallowing self pity. Being bored is an insult to oneself. (Jules Renard)

20 Motivational Quotes To Get You Out of a Funk | Tulip and Sage

Frenemy

I’m challenging myself to try new things, so I wrote a poem, using this writing prompt:

Writing Prompt
Write a 5-7-5 poem on any subject. The only rule is to follow the 5-7-5 syllable count (first line has five syllables, second line has seven, third line has five again).

Here is my 5-7-5 poem:

FRENEMY

I have a new friend.
She’s an unrelenting bitch.
Hypochondria.

Texting with my friends, it appears that Hypochondria’s friend circle has expanded quite a bit, lately. Why is she so tantalizing? Why do I spend so much time with Hypochondria? What really is the allure? She loves to create drama and fear. Hypochondria (let’s just call her Connie from here on out) loves to make something out of nothing, all of the time. She’s really in her prime right now. Connie has SO many followers, and her fan base keeps growing exponentially, every day, it seems. She’s always stirring the pot, and the media (mainstream and social) help her to do it. Every. Single. Day. The media is Connie’s flock of flying monkeys. The thing about Connie is that she tricks you into believing that worry is actually effective. Connie paralyzes a lot of other people, while in the meantime, she expends tons of her own energy, finding countless articles and websites and experts to make her worst case scenarios, seem utterly and entirely plausible, and on the brink of happening, all of the time. Connie sounds so awful and horrible and evil, when you take a step back, to see how she treats people, yet she’s really hard to let go, for so many of her intimate acquaintances. Why is that?

Others who have let go of Connie’s toxic hold over them, suggest these steps to get away from her:

Learning stress management and relaxation techniques
Avoiding online searches for the possible meanings behind your symptoms
Focusing on outside activities such as a hobby you enjoy or volunteer work you feel passionate about
Avoiding alcohol and recreational drugs, which can increase anxiety

Working to recognize that the physical signs you experience are not a symptom of something ominous, but are actually normal bodily sensations
Setting up a schedule for regular appointments with your primary care doctor to discuss your health concerns. Work with them to set a realistic limit on medical tests and specialist referrals. (The Center for Treatment for Anxiety and Mood Disorders)

In short, in order to get out of Connie’s evil clutches: breathe, take a walk, don’t go to her doctor – the infamous “Dr. Google”, find an all-encompassing interest or hobby, don’t go to a bar or brewery or break open a bottle of wine with Connie, remember that you know your own body better than anybody – certainly better than Connie knows it, and finally, go to a doctor who you can trust, a doctor who will help you to limit your exposure to Connie.

Connie is an emotional vampire. She zaps you of your strength and your practical reasoning skills. Connie does NOT deserve any of your time nor your energy. You need to protect yourself from Connie, during this difficult period in history. Do NOT succumb to her seduction. Connie will steal your time, and your peace and your sanity. She is the real enemy of your health (physical and mental) and of your immune system. It is time to say good-bye to Connie. Connie is toxic. She does not deserve any of our mind space nor attention. Connie’s a mean girl, and mean girls are not good friend material.

funny quotes about hypochondriac | hypochondriac. #medicalhumor ...

Weed Picker

This must be a very musically inclined day for birthdays. Apparently Don Henley and Selena Gomez share today, as a birthday. What a wonderful day!

My husband and I both have farming in our heritage and in our roots. My husband’s farming inclination comes out, mainly in how lovingly and earnestly he cares for our plants, even all of the ones that I buy on impulse because they are just “so pretty,” or “so cool” or “so weird.” (Ask me about my love affair with my Corpse Flower plant, sometime.) The other day my husband told me that he had planted pepper seeds, and he asked me to please be careful when weeding the back bed, as the peppers were planted back there. My husband had planted the pepper seeds in the way, way back bed, at the very end of our property, in our back yard. I looked at him and I started giggling.

“Are you seriously worried about me weeding?” I asked incredulously.

“Well, every once in a while, I look outside and then I look twice and I rub my eyes, and I go, oh wow, is she actually picking weeds?!” my husband replied.

It’s true. On very, very rare occasions, I feel the inclination to find some instant gratification and while taking the dogs outside, I might pick weeds for maybe seven minutes, tops. So in theory, my husband was right, while the odds aren’t great, it could happen. The warning was well thought out. The problem is though, when I weed, it is never a well-thought out endeavor. Weeding, for me, is more of an impulsive way to deal with my jitteriness or boredom or anxiety, when taking the dogs out. Weeding is never something that I actually plan to do, or even think about doing, while I am doing it. It kind of just happens, like poking at a scab or picking at a blemish. (Despite living with the coronavirus threat for several months now, I still touch my face WAY TOO MUCH.) Even when it is a subconscious impulse, me actually doing some weeding, is such a rare occurrence that I fully expect and plan on us, having some fresh, lovely, organic peppers for our salads, very soon. I do love my husband’s faith in my better inclinations, however. In these times of so much togetherness mixed with a great deal of unknowns and stress, it really is good to focus on the bright sides of our chosen partners in life. (even focusing on the bright sides that remain relatively dim, most of the time)

Screen Door

Trip, our new Boykin spaniel puppy, has created his own “doggy door” on our screened-in porch. He found a weakness in the screen, at the bottom portion of the screen door, so that when he was really teeny, he would just weasel through a little, loose corner of the screen, hoisting himself and then crawling out to the back yard, as quick as he could muster. I didn’t dissuade this because frankly, I thought that it was cute, watching his wiggly little puppy butt crawl out the door, and also, I assumed that he had to get out to do his business, in a real big hurry. Now that Trip is a bigger puppy, and he has that “spring action” going on, which spaniels are noted for, his handmade doggy door has actually become more of a flap, and his agility skills are highly noted by me, as he leaps outside, through his own creation, as if he were a one-puppy football team, bursting through a banner, headed out to play for the state championship win, in order to “go potty.” And it should be noted that I am his one-person-loud-yet-not-so-agile-middle-aged-lady-cheerleading squad. (In truthfulness, potty training is not yet perfected with Trip, and yesterday there was a Roomba disaster, but that’s for another blog. The Roomba is a perfectly wonderful machine, in my mind, except that it’s one flaw is that it absolutely needs a sniff sensor. Our family is so chaotic with kids and animals, that we actually have two Roombas going, at any one time. Thank goodness for tile floors, Fabuloso, and Eckart Tolle’s podcasts on mindfulness.) Yesterday, was definitely a classic Monday, with this messy fiasco occurring, and my husband getting a flat tire on his brand new car, despite the fact that we barely ever drive anywhere these days. Mondays. At least it’s over for another week.

So, now I will go back to the point that I was trying to make about Trip’s homemade doggy door. It struck me that when we are young and exuberant, we don’t see limits. We burst through the screens that are supposed to stop us, with nary a thought about it. We head out to our chosen destinations with excitement, exhilaration and a belief in all of the fun and adventures, that await us, in the big, outside world. I know that as Trip grows older and wiser and bigger, and we finally get around to fixing the screen so that it is more impenetrable, he will start accepting his limits. Trip will become a little more cautious about what awaits him outside, due to conditioning and his life’s experiences. Still, I hope that he always keeps a little bit of that puppy-like innocence and overreaching curiosity that gave him the impulse to create his own door out, in the first place. And I hope that when this temporary screen of fear and doom and unrest gets lifted for us, in this world, we can all burst through the doors, into the big, beautiful, outside world, with dreams and excitement and anticipation, that have been with all of us, all along, since the days that we were just little, innocent pups, ourselves.

Dire Needs

I read this on the internet the other day. I think that this quote was from Think Smarter (Twitter), but I can’t say for sure:

“There are two types of “tired”, I suppose. One is in dire need of sleep, the other is in dire need of peace.”

What are your dire needs this weekend? Attend to those needs first. Your body will lead you to where it needs attention, with a crumb trail of little aches and pains and stiff knots and cravings. Your mind might just need some relief from the difficult life challenges of today, with a little more focus on fun. Your mind might enjoy having inconsequential things to figure out, like crafts and puzzles and games, and the victorious feeling of completing something hard, yet relatively insignificant and manageable. Your spirit probably just needs to be noticed and recognized. Your spirit just wants to remind you, that you can always rest inside your heart. Try resting in your heart and in your spirit, a little bit this weekend. Stay still in prayer or meditation or just purposeful awareness, in a space or place that you consider to be very peaceful, and notice that your spirit is a plentiful, gurgling, clean fountain of renewable energy and joy. All that your spirit ever wants for you, is to remember that it will always sustain you, if you allow it to flow.

Grumpy Pants

So, I’m not in my happy place. I’ve got my grumpy pants on today. I’ve been described as very easy going, as long as things are going my way. Then, when things get a little rocky, “easy going”, for me, gets tossed right out the window. I’m grumpy because my blood results showed that my COVID antibody test was negative and my cholesterol is a little high. So, that just means that I am headed back to hyper-vigilance in not only my social distancing practices, but also in my dietary habits.

Speaking of pants, I read that workout clothes/active wear apparel sales are surging during this pandemic. Clothing companies everywhere are giving Lululemon a run for their money. That news just adds another patch of grouchiness, to my grumpy pants. I have a closet full of lovely clothes and fabulous shoes and gorgeous handbags and “eye-candy” accessories, that are not really stay-at-home conducive. I don’t own a whole lot of workout clothes. In fact, I own hardly any clothes that fit into that category. I feel dishonest wearing “active wear.” When you are wearing active wear, the assumption is that you are on the verge of working out. Active wear suggests that you just ran into the grocery store for some quinoa and plain almonds, before heading to your daily spin/tai chi/marathon training/fitness boot camp. I’m rarely on the verge of working out. In fact, I’m never on the verge of working out. I do walk daily. I walk daily for several miles and that’s it. Walking is the only exercise which I have consistently done my entire life, and I don’t require any specific uniform to do it. I have been known to walk in a dress and heels, for miles.

So, my little blood test results were my mid-summer’s wake-up call. No more relaxing for me. In fact, I might need to peruse the internet for some workout clothes. I might need to step into reality, that today’s social protocols and my current age range’s vulnerabilities, call for a different uniform that I’m used to wearing. If I want to stay clear of the coronavirus, I’ll need a healthy body with a pristine immune system, to ward it off. Maybe it would be nice to actually feel comfortable, while walking my dogs for miles in my neighborhood tonight. Who knows? But until I make any purchases, my rhinestone flip-flops will have to suffice as my walking shoes. They are a key part of the stubborn side of my persona, and they match my grumpy pants, perfectly!

In Search of Normal

I think that I had the mindset in the beginning of the shutdown, that we were just hitting the pause button, flattening the curve and then everything would quickly go back the way that it was before this whole coronavirus mess, sooner than later. That was my optimistic, hopeful, Pollyanna mindset, without any real logical thought and reasoning behind it. It was a neat and tidy view. “Let’s just clean up this lil’ mess, and get on with our lives. Sunshine fixes everything.”

When things started opening back up again, it was obvious that quite a few people had the same mindset as me, and many were even a lot more bullish than me, about our state of affairs. (I tend to err on the side of caution.) Eager to put things behind us, people, to varying degrees, started behaving as if the pandemic was nearly over. Unfortunately and currently, my beautiful home state of Florida is now considered to be anywhere from a hotspot, to an epicenter of the coronavirus, depending on who you talk to about it. Normal is nowhere in sight.

I think that this is one of the hardest things to get used to about the pandemic. You get that housebound, “I gotta get outta here” feeling, so you head out of your house, to clear your head, all in search of “normal.” But where is “normal”? Will I ever get used to seeing masked faces, especially on children? Will I ever stop feeling the need to shrink into myself (my posture has never been worse) any time I pass another person on the street or in a store? Will I ever be able to sit in an eating establishment again, without that queasy uneasiness, and feeling the need to rush through the experience and escape the confines? Why does everyone seem to have an extra “edge” to their personalities these days, that makes them less approachable and sometimes even downright scary – of course, though, why wouldn’t they? Why does every decision feel like a weighty, two-edged sword? Should my daughter go to her physical school, with the inherent health risks, or should she do subpar on-line studies again? Should we support our friends’ and our family’s celebrations in person, or should we stay safer at home and be there in spirit, at the risk of hurting feelings? Should my eldest son risk flying down to visit us, or should we just continue with the poor, but safe substitute of Facetime? How much of our shopping is just better done online? There are very few easy decisions these days, with even fewer clear answers. It makes my head hurt.

I leave my house, to escape home and the monotonous routine, but everything that I encounter on the outside is so unusual, so disturbing, such an “in-your-face” reminder of the mess that we are in, that I find myself clamoring to just rush back home and quickly shut the door on it all, behind me. Will I ever get used to our “new normal” to the point when a vaccine is found and things really do start going back to the way we knew them, that I might actually have to get used to my “old normal” in the way that I am feeling right now about today’s state of affairs? What a completely bizarre experience we are all going through!!

That being said, some things remain constant. Good food tastes wonderful. Laughter is the best medicine. Sleep is a lovely, peaceful, renewing experience. Nature seems impervious to it all, and remains a sanctuary for us to settle into and calm our nerves. We have each other to lean on, to love on, to gain perspectives from, and to rally our collective strength and courage. And of course and most importantly, our Maker has never left us and will lead us through it all, if we get quiet and humble enough to hear the directions we should take to bring us to a brighter tomorrow.