The Gift of Time

There have been so many times that I have thought to myself, "I should start a blog," and then immediately ask myself, who would want to read anything that I wrote? Well, I guess we are going to find out!! Because I, along with many of you, now have the gift of time! So I have decided to start this blog with the hopes of doing one of my favorite things - making connections to people!

As we are now five weeks into this new state of being, and I am a mother watching her children struggle through online learning, and I am a trainer who attempted to do a few Zoom meetings, and I am a normal person eating, drinking, and worrying my way through this new reality, I have decided that I am learning some mom/trainer/normal person lessons. And you, if you are the unfortunate person who decided to read my ramblings, are going to be the recipient of some of my usually scattered thoughts.

Things that I know for sure - at least for me here in Merle Kingdom: 1 - my thoughts are only my thoughts, they do not represent expert advice, opinions or even fact! 2 - I thrive on positivity - we all thrive on positivity! And it is crazy difficult to stay positive when you have been living with worry, fear, and the same walls and people for five weeks. So if you choose to comment or respond, please keep it constructive and positive. Feel free to share your concerns and worries but haters need to find a different platform. I hope we can demonstrate how people can disagree in a respectful and appropriate way. And I am sure we are going to disagree occasionally - I count on that in order to broaden my thinking!! 3 - we are all navigating a new normal, and some of us are navigating it extremely well, and some of us have on two different colored socks, as we sit here and type. ;) And that comes with absolutely no judgment. One of my friends said we shouldn't call it a "new" normal, but a "temporary" normal. I think I disagree. I think this pandemic has changed all of us in pretty significant ways - and some of that is really good. I will talk about that in future blogs, I think. So for me it is definitely a new normal and one that I am choosing to embrace and run with!

My last thought for today relates to the title of this blog - The Gift of Time. I, like so many of you, spend so much of my life running from one thing to the next, crossing out things on my to-do list, writing things onto my to-do list so that I can then cross them off, and re-writing what was left at the end of the day onto the next day's to-do list. Whew! How many times have I said, "If I only had time I would . . . clean out the basement? Read an extra book? Learn how to quill? Paint the hallway? Write a letter? Play Settlers of Catan? Write a blog?" I started a gratitude journal when this quarantine began and I begin each day writing down the three things I am grateful for. Wow. I wrote family, friends & faith a lot. But after about 3 weeks I started to think about other things - the sounds of the birds chirping when I was taking the dog out, the heat that comes out in just the right direction on my cold feet while I sit at my table drinking my coffee, the deep belly laugh my husband makes when he is watching a stupid movie, and the time that I have to stop and really listen, feel, and think. I haven't had time like that in SO long.

I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, (and hopefully you will) is to spend a few moments thinking about the gift of time we have been given. The world has forced us to slow down. What are you doing with it?