Friday wrap up...looking at the positives

Hello and happy Friday!

As I was thinking about what to share with you this week, I am just landing on sending you some thoughts and observations as we wrap up what, as my best guess, a month of Shelter in Place…lock down…work from home…new normal….whatever you are calling it. (It may be more than that, can’t be less….for sure)

I have a million thoughts I could share, but I will spare you by praying for God to just let me type out a few. Maybe some will resonate with you, maybe a few will spark some of your own ideas and thoughts, and maybe some will make you chuckle.

I really don’t know how to best order them and random is my default; so here are some takeaways from Covid19 here at the Reimer house.

I guess we could entitle it “What I learned on my time in Isolation”

#1. I am a self-proclaimed introvert. I love people but social interaction can wear me out. Yet during this Shelter in Place, I have found my heart being convicted on some things. Among them, I have come to realize that my hesitation to engage socially with people usually is fueled by discomfort on what is going to be required of me in a conversation. People’s questions take me off guard and small talk is not my forte. In this time of isolation from friends and acquaintances, I have felt such a tendering in my heart to see their faces and hear their voices. I realize at times I am selective as to what level I am willing to invest in a given meet up with others…and how selfish and vain to be so concerned with what might be expected of me, instead of just loving each person and appreciating who they are and enjoying THEM instead of stressing over what they might expect of ME. As I muse on this, I realize I don’t have to have the “right” answer for conversational questions. I can be vague when I don’t want to share too much…I can be honest when I don’t know the answer to a small talk inquiry….I don’t have to be 100% transparent 100% of the time. I hope to remember this when we return to group settings.

#2. We should take time to really rest more once this is over. Not just relax by doing fun things. I mean…really rest. Cease working, doing, striving, and going. Maybe we don’t need to do all the things we thought we needed to do. I am watching with interest the business world in particular and seeing owners and workers who are able to think about what the service is that they offer and how they can do it more efficiently and effectively and creatively. Not faster…not more and more and more produced…but quality and quantity that flows from thoughtfulness and fresh ingenuity. Wouldn’t it be nice if our industries were able to just meet needs instead of working so hard to create needs?

#3. Families do well when unstructured time and less options of places to be and things to watch drive them outside of their walls and yet not away from their home base. In the four years we have lived here, I have seen more of our neighbors and waved to more people and chatted (granted from six feet away) with more of them as we are forced outside for something to do besides be inside. We have discovered that cold weather and misting gray days are not an excuse to sit on the couch and flip channels. Amazing. I am hoping when the restrictions lift, the camaraderie will remain.

#4. We drink more water, eat healthier meals, exercise more and are more thoughtful about running errands and shopping. We value our relationships more and have learned to be more content with what we have right under our own roof. We make time for family chats and friend chats on Zoom. I don’t even run from group texts. I actually look forward to them.

#5. Because we are aware of others and situations that are hard, we reach out through any means we have available to check on those who may be lonely, anxious, frightened or overwhelmed. We have had friends drop off goodies or send funny memes and we have “attended” church services and concerts we would have never thought of because we have time now to do so. We think more about others and we look for creative ways to show our love to them. We are not inhibited in reaching out because we know they also are not going anywhere or rushing around with overcrowded lives and schedules.

#6. We have been reminded of the power of prayer in ways, I am sad to confess, I had lost touch with. I realize I had grown a bit cynical and weary, but this time of shelter in place has drawn me back to the heart of God in deeper ways and for this alone I am so grateful. It often takes something that is so much bigger than us to remind us how big our God is and I would hazard a guess that a pandemic that shuts down the entire world at one time is about as big as you can get on the attention grabbing scale. We can’t do anything to change the situations people are dealing with in and of ourselves, but we stop, drop and pray much more frequently now and have increasing faith that God is active in this world.

#7. Already businesses and government and media are moving into the next phase of “how do we being to reopen the country?” May I suggest it would be a good idea for each of us to individually sit before God and ask HIM how HE would like us to reenter a reopened country? We have found some things in this time that we know are good for us and for others. We have discovered some things we would like to not pick up again as they were toxic to us and not beneficial to others. Let’s make the most of these last days of the “new normal” to that we move into the “new, new normal” wiser, better, more Christ-like.

Can’t wait to see your faces someday soon, closer than six feet…but not too close inside my bubble because, you know…I may have learned a few things but I still got my boundaries < 3

With love, hugs and a smile,

Laura

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