I had a singularly strange and eye-opening experience yesterday, and it came completely out of the blue.
I was sitting out on my back patio on a 30-degree afternoon with my sister (my new propane heater has become one of my best friends this winter) and we were talking about our respective last times being “out” in the world before realizing we were suddenly facing a global pandemic.
For me, it was a Thursday afternoon in mid-March 2020, when I’d met a friend at a favorite pub downtown. The next day everything began getting canceled and … well, you know how the rest of the story goes.
Because I was curious about the exact date of this final fateful outing, I picked up my phone and pulled up my calendar app, scrolling back back back all the way to March until I found it in my calendar. But before I had the chance, that strange and eye-opening experience hit me like a ton of bricks.
Look at everything I was doing in my life!
Monday: Coffee Date, Walk With Friend, Yoga. Tuesday: Hair/Makeup Session, Photoshoot, Happy Hour Downtown. Wednesday: Networking Event, Coffee Date, Yoga. Thursday: Breakfast Meeting, Afternoon Conference, Evening Rehearsal and Performance. Friday: Volunteer, Board Meeting, Yoga, Lunch Date, Dinner at Mom and Dad’s.
…and on and on and on.
I couldn’t believe that I used to lead this life. It was mine, of course, but it had been so long since I was IN that life that I had all but forgotten about it.
Have you almost forgotten about the thing formerly known as your life?
If you have – guess what – it means you’re human 🙂 We are adaptable creatures by our very nature. We’ve adjusted to our new lives, however unideal, difficult, or frustrating they may be.
So today, if you’re up for a singularly strange and eye-opening experience, try the following:
1) Pull up your calendar and scroll back to a year from today.
2) Take a good look at your day-to-day life at that time. How were you spending your days, nights, and weekends?
3) Observe your own reaction. What do you miss? What don’t you miss?
Whatever life before COVID looked like for you, just remember…
We WILL have the chance to return to something that resembles our former lives at some point. Maybe we’ll even have the chance to be more intentional about the parts we want to return to and the parts we don’t!
So in those bleakest moments, keep the happiest parts of that former life in your mind. It’s all still there – it’s just on hold for the moment.
With you in spirit…
Janelle
