Fireside Chat With Becky.

What I Want to Keep When the Pandemic is Over…

I am sitting around a campfire in my backyard with my husband and daughter looking deep into the orange flames leaping up and thinking about how life has changed in the last several weeks. All my speaking engagements have been canceled, no errands or shopping, no church events, no lunch with friends, many things have changed. This is a good time to rearrange my priorities, to get a fresh start. This pandemic won’t last forever but there might be some things I can learn from this. I’ve been on a journey to minimize the stuff in my house, and this pandemic has minimized activities in my life. What will I keep? Here is a short list:

1. I want to keep the extra time with my family. Suppers together, talking around a campfire in the backyard, cleaning out the garage together, just sitting in the living room reading.

2. I will keep the extreme planning it takes to make grocery runs twice a month. Making sure I have the ingredients I need so I don’t have to run to the store every other day has added more time to my life. It seems our meals have been healthier as well as they are better planned out.

3. I’m not a fearful person, but having a pandemic hones my priorities. I want to keep the perspective that life is short and people are important. I want to keep checking in on my friends who live alone, and those who live in difficult relationships.

4. I want to keep my spiritual practices intact. Finding time for prayer and meditating on all the good in my life and the world rather than focusing on the bad.

5. I want to live one day at a time. I want to live life to the fullest. Fear of the future creeps in. I am given strength for today. Just today. That’s all I need.

6. Being in the house with my family twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, I’ve come to realize I tend to get irritable and impatient. I want to be more patient, kind and loving.

As this pandemic goes on, I plan on adding to this list. What’s on your list? What behaviors and “new normal” things will you keep from the new normal life you have been living? I would love to hear from you!