With Love

Hey, friends! I just wanted to do a little check-in and let you know that I’m still here. Life is still so topsy-turvy right now, and I don’t know when things will go back to normal. I so miss writing here every week and have every intention of getting back into the habit as soon as possible. Right now, my energy is focused completely on keeping myself and my loved ones safe and doing my job at the church.

This won’t last forever. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I can start to see it growing brighter. I hope you can, too.

Let’s see each other through this, friends. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.

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!