While the world faces the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, there are so many negative things to focus on. Lost jobs, financial hardships, and death. I do not want to make light of this pandemic or the significant challenges that we will continue to face as a result.
For me, I have chosen to focus on some of the positive things that have come out of the pandemic. The experience has truly changed my perspective, possibly forever.
In a normal situation, my family spends a tremendous amount of time out of the house, eating at restaurants, and participating in children’s activities. The truth is that we rarely have time to tackle our long to do lists, or invest in the projects that we personally want to do. We constantly put off things until we have more time, with the underlying understanding that we may never have time.
What the coronavirus pandemic has given to my family and perhaps yours is the gift of time.
As a freelance writer, most of my client projects are still ongoing. However, I am not driving around town to a class or to spend hours perusing the aisles of target. This is all time that I now have back in my life.
We organized our pantry. We built a climber for the kids in our backyard. We assembled the greenhouse. We bought two years ago, it never had time to finish. We restarted our gardens.
Professionally, I am tackling projects that I’ve always wanted to. I’m reading the professional development books I purchased but never had time to read. I am spending quality time homeschooling without trying to cram the most amount of work into the shortest period of time. The new educational resources that organizations have developed to help families during this time can continue to provide value to my family for decades to come.
This experience has caused me to question how we live our life. We have spent at least an hour a day enjoying our backyard over the past few weeks. Previous to this, we simply didn’t. We constantly overlook all of the wonderful things in her life because were just too busy.
I hope that when this pandemic ends, and it will, I remember that I can prioritize my own professional development and family life over mundane tasks that, in the end, provide little value. I am grateful for our health and your health. I am excited to see how the community has come together during this time.
While I’m the first to admit that I’m scared of what this will mean for our economy and the people around us, I am trying to focus on positives that a forced perspective change can offer.