Normalcy

It’s official: The holidays are over. Christmas trees are coming down and being returned to their usual places in storage. Cleanup from our quarantined New Years celebrations is complete. This week, we each went back to our previous routines as if it had all just been a dream.

On the one hand, going back to normal after the holidays is a sad ordeal. We all love that special season of joy, rest, and time with loved ones. If you’re like me, you wish it would never end.

At the same time, though, there’s something comforting about routine. The holidays are great, but they can also be hectic: making sure you’ve shopped for everyone on your list, arranging gift exchanges, setting aside quality time with all your loved ones. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the busiest time of year for a lot of us.

The lull that comes after, the return to what some may consider the drudgery of everyday life, isn’t something we always look forward to. But I’ve long been convinced that we should learn to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, and that includes where we are right now.

The reality is that we love the holidays because they’re special. If life was like that all the time, then it would just be typical, and we wouldn’t enjoy it as much. We need to experience the ordinary in order to appreciate the extraordinary. It’s how our brains work.

I’m choosing to lean into this more normal pace of life rather than resist or resent it. There are still so many things about this time in my life that I’m thankful for, and I never want to take those things for granted.

Of course, even this time isn’t completely normal. We’ve been in a pandemic for so long that it might seem like life has always been this way, but it hasn’t. And it won’t be forever.

I’m choosing to enjoy this return to normalcy as I wait for the greater one that’s coming. There’s something to appreciate about every period of life, so right now, I’m just thankful that everyone I love is healthy and getting by.

If you find yourself feeling a bit down about the end of the holiday season, I’d encourage you to look for the things that make your normal, everyday life meaningful. They’re there, even if they’re a little harder to see right now. If you’ve got people to love and something meaningful to do day in and day out, that’s a lot. And it’s enough to be content until the next special time comes around.

Of course, it’s important to have something to look forward to as well. Personally, I can’t wait to take Katherine out for our first dine-in meal in a year. Hopefully it’ll be possible soon! Until then, I’m happy with the routine we have and the fulfillment I get from it. Finding contentment in normalcy is a skill that we have to learn, but it’s certainly worth it.

Thanks for reading, friends! I hope your year is off to a great start, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

A New Beginning

A thrill of hope 
The weary world rejoices 
For yonder breaks 
a new and glorious morn' 

I’ve always been a big fan of the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Coming off the joy of the holiday, it’s a great time to rest up and prepare for the new year ahead. It also feels like an extended celebration of the hope that Christmas brings.

Christ’s appearing on earth was a new beginning for all of humanity. It split history itself in two. Through his incarnation, Jesus shows us that God is with us, that God cares about us, and that we can find hope and peace in the very presence of God.

That’s what we celebrated last week. And later this week, we’ll celebrate a different kind of beginning: the start of a new calendar year. It’s a reflective and hopeful season every time it comes around, but after the year we’ve all had, I think a new start is something we’re all especially looking forward to.

Change is on the horizon. A new beginning is coming, and whatever that looks like for you, I hope you’ll find hope in knowing that things can and will get better. I know I am.

See you in the new year, friends.

Still Here

Hey, friends! I don’t have a full-on blog post for you this time around, but I wanted to check in and let you know that I’m still here. Even though I haven’t been writing weekly, I didn’t want to go a whole month without posting anything at all, so I’m writing this quick update.

One might think that as this pandemic drags on, it would become easier to deal with. But in my experience, it’s actually been the opposite. The longer this goes, the more it weighs on me. The more fraught every decision becomes. The more I miss the people I love and the way things used to be.

It’s hard, but we’re all pressing on and doing our best. That’s all we can do.

I’m trying to keep reminding myself that this won’t be forever. That there’s a lot of great stuff in the future to look forward to. That things will one day be better than they are now. And that gives me hope, but the struggle is still real.

I hope you’re doing well and staying safe. I know the holiday season is presenting each of us with a lot of difficult choices, but I hope that the warmth and joy of this time of year isn’t lost on any one of us. Not even a pandemic can take that away, as long as we don’t let it.

Fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get back to a more regular writing schedule soon. I’ve really missed the creative outlet, and I’ve missed the conversations with you. If you’re still reading, thank you for doing so. It means a lot, and I promise to do my best to be back as soon as possible.

Stay safe, friends. Let’s see each other through this.

Something to Look Forward To

I recently created a note on my phone called “Upcoming Exciting Things.” In it, I’m keeping a list of all the stuff I’m looking forward to in the near future. And ever since I started the list, I’ve found myself going back to it occasionally and get excited all over again. It’s been a great mental exercise for me.

Granted, most of items on my list are nerdy products that Apple announced at their most recent events. But as silly as that may sound to you, keeping this list and checking it has actually helped me avoid a pandemic-induced funk.

This crisis has gone on much longer than any of us expected, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking this is what life is going to be like forever. But the truth is that it’s not.

This pandemic will end. Life will not always be this way. Things will get better. And thinking positively about the future reminds us of that.

This doesn’t just apply to COVID, by the way. This is true in every phase of life. No matter what any of us is going through at any given moment, there is always something good to look forward to. And that’s what gives us hope when we don’t feel like we have the strength to carry on.

Thinking positively about the future keeps us from despair. It’s also just plain fun. And it can be a great starting point for making a plan to where we want to be.

Do you have something in your life that you’re looking forward to? We all need it. But it’s something we have to choose to seek out.

The current state of world can bring out the pessimist in all of us. I never knew what a downer I could be before now. And you may be feeling that way, too. But I’m here to remind you that life, at its core, is good. And there’s always something better ahead for you.

Positivity isn’t some blind, baseless belief that your story will have a fairy tale ending. It’s making the choice to believe that life can be better than it is today. It’s the choice to look forward to something, get excited about it, and allow that excitement to fuel you as you move forward.

My encouragement to you is simple: Choose something that you’re looking forward to, and remind yourself of it on a daily basis.

Maybe it’s getting together with friends at a restaurant once that’s safe again. Or maybe it’s a family event that you’re planning to attend when that’s an option. Or maybe it’s a nerdy gadget that you’ve been itching to try. (Okay, that one’s mine.)

Regardless of what it is, we all need something to look forward to. And we all have something to look forward to if we’ll just choose to seek it out. I hope you will, because I’ve found it to be really helpful in my own life.

Be well, friends. We’ll talk again soon!

Fragile

As if this year hadn’t thrown us enough curveballs already, my community was informed last week that we are under an indefinite boil order. Thanks, 2020.

If you’re unfamiliar with what a boil order is, it’s basically a fancy way for the local government to let you know that your tap water is unfit for consumption. Any water intended for humans to eat or drink must be boiled for at least a minute to ensure that it won’t make you very sick. Thus the name “boil order.”

It might seem inconsequential given everything else that’s happening in the world right now, but for my friends and neighbors, a development like this is very disruptive. Several local restaurants had to immediately shut down, putting their employees out of work with no guaranteed return date. There were concerns that students wouldn’t be able to attend schools without something to drink, though administrators were able to quickly put together a plan. Grocery stores are forced to ration out bottled water to ensure everyone has a chance to get some.

It’s all anyone can talk about. There are signs everywhere. People are constantly asking, “Is the boil order still in place? How much longer?”

People’s lives are being greatly affected. And it’s all because someone didn’t use enough disinfectant at the water treatment plant.

I don’t say all of this to complain. Katherine and I are getting by just fine; for us, it’s just an inconvenience. But I do worry about all of the other people in my small town who are struggling with lack of work or access to clean water right now. Their suffering is real. And even though it seems like a minor problem compared to what we’ve all faced this year, it isn’t for them. For them, it’s just another in a series of undeserved blows that have come this year to threaten them and their loved ones.

The life of my community has been significantly disrupted by dirty water. Something we took for granted just a few days ago has become the thing we yearn for the most. It’s like living in a bizarre alternate version of reality, and it’s quite unsettling.

That last sentence probably describes how most of us have felt throughout this strange and difficult year. It really does seem like we woke up one morning in a world that looks like ours but feels completely different. None of the threats we’re facing were expected, and the things we most desire now we didn’t give a second thought to this time last year.

Visiting friends and family. Going to a restaurant. Taking a trip to somewhere new. Seeing a movie in a theater. These activities were considered so commonplace before, and now, we talk about them like they’re either rare delights or lost practices from a bygone era.

Going to work. Paying rent. Sending kids to school. All of these were taken for granted before now. We don’t have that luxury anymore.

Whether it’s a virus bringing our entire world to a screeching hault or contaminated water interfering with the businesses and everyday lives of the people in my community, the events of this year have made one thing abundantly clear to me:

The things we hold dear are so very fragile. Our lives can change drastically at a moment’s notice. The smallest causes can have enormous effects and take away things we thought would always be there.

Life is precious. Love just as much so. And they’re fragile. So let’s cherish them for all they’re worth and make sure we don’t take a single thing for granted.

We don’t know what’s going to happen next. We don’t know what life will look like tomorrow or how things will change. All we can do is love those around us, appreciate the good things in life we do have, and hope for an even better tomorrow.

I’m sorry you had to read through a whole story about small town water issues, just to get to that, but I hope it’s helpful. I certainly needed the reminder this week. Maybe you did, too.

Thanks for reading, friends. I’ll talk to you again soon.