What do you miss during this time of staying home? I miss going to my favorite coffee shop — Bodhi Leaf Coffee. It’s not about the coffee as I drink tea (which they have my favorite iced green tea) but about the atmosphere and my motivation while there to write my blog. It did not matter that there were noise distractions from other customers, I was able to focus and put myself in a very calm zone. I miss the friendly faces behind the counter who always greeted me with “Hi Sherry!”
I have been ordering their coffee online for my entire family. I am doing the next best thing I know how to do by ordering their products online and surprising my out of state family with coffee delivered to their door.
I miss walking freely around my town. Most of the public places have been closed to keep us safe from group gathering. I miss going out without a second thought about my health. Who knew that masks, gloves and cleansing wipes would become a part of going out in public?
The unknown is what is so challenging. I read a great article the other day from Harvard Business Review ~~ That Discomfort Your’re Feeling is Grief ~~ the article gave me some key points:
- The goal is to find balance in the things you’re thinking.
- Anticipatory grief is the mind going to the future and imagining the worst. To calm yourself, you want to come into the present.
- You can also think about how to let go of what you can’t control.
- There’s anger: You’re making me stay home and taking away my activities. There’s bargaining: Okay, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right? There’s sadness: I don’t know when this will end. And finally there’s acceptance. This is happening; I have to figure out how to proceed.
- And, I believe we will find meaning in it. I’ve been honored that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s family has given me permission to add a sixth stage to grief: Meaning.
So that word MEANING jumped out at me. What has helped me navigate the fear is trying to think about what might change for the better because of this. Here are a few of my ideas:
- Traffic problems will ease if more people are set up to work remotely at least two days a week;
- Teachers have become the new heroes to everyone — no one will ever wonder what they do to teach our kids;
- Doctors and nurses are as vital as firemen, police officers and first responders ~~ they went to the frontline to do battle;
- Custodians in every type of business are the people we never see ~~ they do their work at night when we are home ~~ they are as necessary to our survival as the CEO of the company;
- Stay at home parents are set up for a thankless “what do you do all day” job ~~ that will never be a problem again;
- I hope all leaders of every country realize that by working together we can overcome anything;
- Kindness works — a smile or a thank you goes a long way.
I know that I am making my life simpler each day. I am seeing nature in a different way. It can teach us about renewal and that no matter what forces try to destroy it, there will always be something green growing from the ground.
