(Now) Working From Home

As I wrote in “Coronavirus: How We Determine Our Future,“ I have been working from home. Now, I’m coming on two weeks. My wife, also, is working from home. As we live in Michigan, my son is home, so we have to adjust to the three of us being home. We still need to do our jobs, while supervising our son’s education.

Every morning, my colleagues and I have a group call, where we discuss work stuff. However, mostly, we just check in on each other. Not even a few days into this situation, I found myself missing them. From going out into the hallway to get my steps, going to the kitchenette for coffee, saying hi to people I know and some of the little things that previously annoyed me, I missed them.

From Then To Now

As I think about this coronavirus pandemic and how we seem to have been inconvenienced (fact for some and understatement for others), I can’t help but think how there was so much in our previous lives that we took for granted. I say previous because I have heard that, even once that we “recover,” the way we handle our lives will change forever.

Struggling With Some Changes

I understand that we’re still getting to know more about this virus. As far as I understand, we, human beings, haven’t been exposed to it. As result, it is relatively unknown, so we don’t necessarily know what to expect. Perhaps because we heard it compared quite a bit to the flu, there were people that underestimated it. I directly and indirectly know of people, who explained that, by doing X, we would be fine. Assuming that most of us wash our hands, which there will inevitably be people that will disregard these similar suggestions, even this doesn’t completely eliminate the risk but does reduce it. Up until the State of Michigan shut down bars due to too many bad players, I heard of people on social media saying that they still planned on going out. I couldn’t understand the sense of being in groups, when we are trying to soften a disease’s impact by reducing them.

So when we could no longer do what we want, when we want and how we want, we felt a loss of choice. When we do go out, we have to remember to do things like not touching our faces, remembering what we did touch and try to remember how to properly wash our hands. Side note: I have repeatedly heard how soap attacks the virus’ fatty layer, so we have options besides using hand sanitizer. On top of it all, we pray (sometimes literally) that, even with doing these things, we won’t get sick. It’s so much to remember.

We Haven’t Lost Everything

So with all of this pondering and discussing what we’ve lost, I can tell you that we have not lost “everything.” At least, where I live, I haven’t heard of anyone going without food. Yes, selection/availability can be sporadic, but nobody is starving. Right now, dining in at restaurants isn’t possible, but the ones that has always had carry-out or are starting to do it remain open for now. We might not be able to make our decisions in the way that we wish, but we still have the ability to make them.

Best Burger Ever

Just the other night, we ended up picking up some carryout burgers from one of our neighborhood bars. We have no way of knowing, if this will be our last “outside” burger for awhile. When we arrived home and I started eating that burger, I savored it, as if it were the best that I’ve ever had.

After dinner, a thought occurred to me. Prior to coronavirus, how many of us have had burgers? When was the last time? Where did it come from? When did we expecting our next one? I suspect that we never gave these thoughts the consideration that they deserved. I suspect that we can say this not only about burgers, but, also, about the other things that aren’t readily available, the things that we now should do less or not at all. There is nothing like scarcity to nurture gratitude.

It’s (In) Those Little Things

As always, I can only tell you what I do and how it works for me. Yes, I have to look more at my calendar to remember what day it is. We put more thought into what we buy at the grocery store. At home, we’re more conscientious about what we eat based around what we have available. On the rare occasions, when we go out, we have to keep our distance, what we’ve touched and immediately wash our hands. With these and other things, it’s easy to dwell on what we no longer have.

I can’t ignore reality, but I actively and intently work to not concentrate on this. I choose to concentrate on spending time with my family. I choose to see how I can help my neighbors. I will seek to use my time to focus even more on self-improvement. Why should we mourn distractions, when we should now see that they took us from the people and things that really matter? How much more beautiful is it to be in the present moment?

BE IN THE MOMENT. FIND THOSE THINGS THAT YOU STILL HAVE FOR WHICH YOU CAN GIVE THANKS.

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