Hey! It’s me again, I took a bit of a hiatus when the world stopped in its tracks last March. Wow what a whirlwind 2020 has been so far, and we’ve still got 3 months to go. I think it’s safe to say the Corona Virus (Covid19) impacted everyone’s lives, in many ways, for the bad but, lets try our best to focus on the good, the silver lining if you will.

In my Start Where You Are journal, the task asked was “Think of something you lost recently. What are two positive insights you gained from the experience?”

Ha – what a doozy of a question to be asked during a pandemic! Ok let’s get this straight right now. Everyone has mixed feelings on the topic of Covid19 and I’ve learned we need to give each other grace and allow each individual to process the pandemic the way they need to, while still respecting their personal beliefs and boundaries. I also am fortunate to live in a rural area where we have not seen any significant amount of confirmed cases and I don’t personally know anyone who has contracted Covid19 – yet! My point of view and ability to see a silver lining in all of this chaos could be drastically different from someone who has lost a loved one.

Ok, now that’s been said I’ll get to my point!

March 2020 hit us like a brick wall and we are still recovering from the stress and fears. One day the kids are in school and the next everything is shut down and we are asked to no longer go out except for essential travel. I was watching the news in disbelief of what was happening around the world and also fearing how my mom who travels to the US for the winter would be getting home and if they would let her get across the border. There was so much uncertainty and chaos and mixed messages going around it created much fear, stress and my little friend called anxiety took up permanent residence in my stomach.

I relaxed a bit when my mom made it back into Canada and was self-isolating in her home. I was however still concerned for her mental health being in the cold winter alone in her house having lost my Dad only months before.  We asked her to come live with us, once her quarantine time was up, and this is where the silver linings started to fall into place.

We have realized so many things due to the pandemic that have changed our way of thinking and acting and hoping to never take for granted again.

• We got so much quality time as a family, watching movies, building puzzles, learning new card games and we were reminded how good it feels to slow down again and get back to the basics of family time. My kids were also so fortunate to be able to have that quality time with their Grandma that they otherwise would never of had.
• We couldn’t go anywhere and without trying we were saving money! I think most would agree this has been a positive impact – that is unless you’ve been online shopping lol.

• Learning to become more self-sufficient, I’ve always planted a garden but this spring more than ever I seen and heard about more people gardening for the first time, and also if we/they couldn’t grow it, looked for it locally. It’s been great to see so many people trying to support their local economy instead of the big box commercial stores – who are still getting business anyway.
• Realizing the importance of Self Care. We were able to slow down and take time for that warm bubble bath or read a book we’ve wanted to read. Whatever it is we know that Self Care is vital to our health and we need to make time for it.
• Technology – so many people have had to work from home or weren’t allowed to visit loved once. Thank goodness for technology and the ability to do video chats. These will never replace the feeling of a good hug and in person visit but it was far better than nothing at all!
• Rural living is a blessing! Playgrounds were shut down and people were refined to their yards. My kids were so fortunate to have acres and acres of land to explore and a toy center with swings and a trampoline in the back yard. I’m still not sure if they know how lucky they are to have had that space and ability to still play outside.

• Homeschooling gave me the opportunity to see how my kids love to learn. Saying this I realized the kids weren’t the only ones learning – they taught me some life lessons too. Kids are resilient. New rules such as masks were put in place and I was fighting it hard. My kids were fine with it so I thought maybe I should follow their lead and not fight the change, just see where it goes.

I feel like we’ve lost some freedoms and I still fear a bit that we may never get them back, I fear we many never get to celebrate family special occasions the way we once did, mostly because I’m not sure what the end game plan is to Covid19, is it a vaccine? Will we ever have a vaccine? Will I want to get the vaccine? There is still so much uncertainty it’s hard to know how I feel at this time. What I am certain about is, if we look hard enough we can find positives to every situation. I know I listed more two positive insights I’ve gained but I feel they are all important.

What is something you’ve lost but gained insight from? How are you handling living through this pandemic?