Keeping

I don’t see an end to the pandemic chaos happening any time soon. And regardless of all of the unimaginable things that have happened this year and people’s desperate requests to get back to a “normal” that is now long gone, there are a few things I’d like to stick around for a longer term.

People are wanting to ditch the masks, travel without restrictions, send the kids back to school and stand with each other as close as they want without the six feet reminder.

But after it’s all said and done, I’d like a few habits to stick:

Escaping to another world. With all of the heavy reality that many of us are experiencing, I’ve recently rekindled my love for reading and getting lost in the pages. It feels good to disconnect and tap into someone else’s life and my own imagination, especially because it’s so easy to get caught up in the mundane load of adulting.

Exercising. At the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, my nerves were on edge and there were unnecessary take out orders. It took me looking in the mirror and feeling like crap to put an end to it. Since working from home, I have a lot of time - time that seemed impossible pre-pandemic. These days I’m working out 3-4 days a week with a mix of walk-run intervals, and it’s liberating. And the results that I’m seeing have good perks too.

Enjoying the quiet. I recently bought some outdoor furniture and am super excited. I’ve been creating a serene place to prop my feet up while reading a book or people watching. There are many nights when I lounge outside as the sunsets and just enjoy the quiet, in between my talks with God.

As the saying goes, there is no such thing as a coincidence. So while this new normal can be annoying a lot of times, there has been some blessings in the chaos. And small wins are still wins. And these days, I’ll take any little bit of sunshine I can get.

We can all admit that this year has caused us all to pivot, shuffle our feet and reposition. But perhaps it was necessary. Perhaps the heaviness (literally and figuratively) and the noise that we thought was so normal pre-pandemic was not so normal. And perhaps the shift was necessary to realign for better.

So while I have joked with friends about wanting to throw the whole year away, the reality is there are new ways, intentions and habits I want to keep.

So I challenge you to think differently about this year, despite the pandemic.