Now What?

We’re over 3 months in to navigating life in the time of this global pandemic…

Over the weekend I found myself asking, “Now what?”

This week my family and I recommitted to making the best of our situation/this unique (to say the least) summer.

It isn’t going to be easy, as a friend reminded me recently, doing the right thing doesn’t always feel good.

Continuing to stay safe makes sense to/for our family and I know we can do this together… One day, one healthy choice, one next right thing at a time.

I posted this sentiment Monday on Facebook and Instagram.

In response, a friend posed this question,

What specific choices are you making if you don’t mind me asking? I am also feeling the same way now that it’s “summer,” but I haven’t made any hard decisions yet.

This was my answer,

Basically, we are staying the course, in terms of closely following the recommendations for the Illinois and Chicago Reopening Phases, as we move through them, along with what the CDC has shared (most recently updated on Friday).

We’re doing this with an emphasis on wearing masks* and/or social distancing at least 6 ft. from those we don’t live with, depending on the circumstances.

What has made this more challenging/painful for our family, is that some loved ones who we miss and would like to spend time with are not doing the same and thus we are making difficult decisions not go places and/or attend gatherings with those who don’t seem to be taking the pandemic as seriously as we are.

We are also still very much limiting our time away from home. We are getting takeout from restaurants occasionally, while not feeling ready to eat at them (even outdoors).

We take each situation/event/invite as it comes, with an open mind and heart. We find out what those who are hosting are doing (if anything), to model and encourage safe behaviors, and in many cases are opting out of getting together, if we don’t feel it will be safe enough for us and others.

The same friend then replied,

Ah yes, we are doing the same. I thought maybe you’d come up with a genius plan to shift mindset about what we CAN do.

Which prompted me to add,

Continuing to work on that part…

We’re definitely trying our best to focus on feeling gratitude for having our home, employment (that can be done from home) and (so far) the 4 of us having been able to stay healthy, as well as none of our close loved ones having gotten sick with or died from COVID-19.

We really enjoy each other’s company (most of the time), so have been able embrace being just the 4 of us, though we do miss being with our loved ones in person and have done lots of Zoom calls.

Also, we have done and continue to work on a lot of home improvement projects that we’ve been putting off for years.

There were more side conversations on my Facebook post, as tends to happen in the comments on social media, and another friend asked if I would consider making the post public or turn it into a blog entry, so my “wisdom” could be shared. I appreciated their kind words, agreed to do so and opted for this platform.

That same friend shared in the comments of my post about their father having been hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year and though he is fine now, “it was still terrifying and something (they’d) like to avoid.” My friend had previously told me about their father having survived his bout with this novel coronavirus, which I think about often and is amongst the many reasons I know how important it is to take this pandemic seriously.

Since my original post I learned that an old friend’s father died of COVID-19, after 19 days in the ICU, which was another heartbreaking reminder of how very real this all is.

Sending peace, love, courage and hope from Chicago to wherever this finds you.

*Though our family is still getting used to wearing masks regularly, we’ve definitely gotten a kick out of some of the fun designs, including these matching smiley face ones that Abby and I bought. We especially like them since while wearing masks we can’t really see each other’s facial expressions.