Blog
The Gift Of Staying Home
I am currently living in a different universe where I have been given a gift.
As I think about the last two weeks, I’ve noticed some significant changes in a short amount of time. The most obvious change is getting to spend more time with my family given my girls’ online schoolwork and my teleworking schedule. We are now into a daily routine where they study their lessons with breaks in between subjects, and Nicky helps them with projects.
The house is quiet (mostly), and it is a much slower pace than existed only 4 weeks ago. As a result, I find myself doing things I have not done in a long time – reading, thinking, writing, going for long walks with Nicky, and listening to my girls tell silly stories.
As I consider the next two months (given the stay-at-home order in Virginia), I think about the opportunities that the current distress provides. A stressful commute in the morning is replaced by time spent in God’s Word; a hurried schedule during the day is replaced with a break to enjoy the outdoors; a quick lunch eaten at the desk is replaced with healthier habits; a late evening at the office is replaced with a quiet walk with my teenage daughter; and a nonstop day ending in exhaustion is replaced with a full night’s rest.
When I think about the next 60 days, I see a gift uniquely wrapped in a crisis but still rare in value: time. I can’t remember what I was doing one year ago today, but I’m sure it was a typical hurried day with too many things to do and not enough time to do them. I do know that one year from now, I will remember what I was doing today because it was a day filled with the “important” instead of the “urgent.”
Two months is not a long time, depending on how old you are and how busy your life is on average. However, it is long enough to establish good habits and routines that will be harder to break once the current crisis subsides. How sad it would be to look back six months from now and see a missed opportunity for change, or miss those moments of reflection and time spent with family that were so easily overcome by a return to “normal” life.
There is talk of the current crisis being the “new normal” for a time. The question is what of this new normal should become part of the old normal, and how we can use this time to solidify that change.
A famous chief of staff once said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” For once, I agree with that man.
