Last month, in honor of turning 50, I wrote an article about achieving Level 50 and ‘Embracing the Adventure’. OK Universe, I did not mean the COVID 19, world pandemic, crush my fledgling business, cancel our vacation, everyone stays home type of adventure!
The last week makes me think of the ancient curse “May you live in interesting times”. Times are certainly interesting, and scary and unpredictable. But my embrace the adventure motto for this new decade of my life requires me to look for the humor. Hmmmm….searching….searching…searching…
Mr. Rogers always advised to “Look for the helpers” during times of crisis. We have many amazing examples of helpers – like the medical personnel and scientists who are prepping the hospitals and researching vaccines. And let’s not forget the at-home helpers like the toddlers who will be joining conference calls, family members who will use up the more-precious-than-gold toilet paper, and furry office mates. See photo below for my colleague Naomi as she critiqued my spreadsheet yesterday.
As a Mom, I slept much better last night after bringing my older son home from college. Definitely easier to face this crisis with everyone tucked in safely at home. The downside is having to share the Xbox. For my 50th birthday, I bought myself my first Xbox game. The last time I regularly played video games, I fought Space Invaders on the Atari. Things have advanced a bit since then. I have been slowly figuring it out with the help of You Tube videos and lots of wild jumping and lightsaber action. Now, I face an in-house audience of teenaged critics. Not to mention needing to create a schedule for Xbox time. Maybe we can trade chores for priority scheduling…
Bracing for extended weirdness – such as the kids finishing the semester from home – we are re-arranging some rooms to create work spaces for everyone. I just got demoted from a private office to a shared office. Oh well, at least I got to choose my new office mate.
As school cranks back up, we plan to start recess. You know, take a break together during the day, run around, laugh, relax and have fun. Anyone up for dodgeball?