1. What is this Quarantine madness?! My mother-in-law used to say, "You can stand on your head for two weeks"....and I whole-heartedly agree. Give me a hard thing, accompanied with an end date, and I'll plow...or at least muddle my way through. Onward, we go...suffering in silence, because that's what I do. But this....this week six, going on seven nonsense, is enough already.stop.it.
2. The height of the Wall family "Quarantine Creativity" has been nothing more than chalk drawing on the driveway, puzzle-putting-together, random leg painting, and.....let me see.....yep, nope, that's about it. We've spent every day and night in this house, (thankful to have a few rooms to choose from) we've gone on lots of walks, hit a volleyball around together, watched some movies, slept in later than usual, and cooked a LOT more (not my favorite past time). Brad has still been seeing patients...thankful he's stayed well.
Its been a one day at a time season in the Wall house. I would say that every day, at least one of us has an "is this really happening" sort of moment. There have been some tears, but also some laughter, some loneliness but also some bonding, and some "slowly slipping into madness" and a feeling of "I could claw out my insides" (as my friend described it).
So I'm just here to say, that if you've been barely getting by, it's really okay. Maybe that means you're knocking on the door of brokenness and that is a good place to be.
If you've been in perpetual "survival mode", I get it.
If you've lost it a time or two with your squirrelly toddlers, who have been climbing the walls AND your nerves, I'm willing to bet that you haven't scarred them for life.
If your mess is not a cute, staged Instagram mess, but a real life, ugly mess, yep.
I hope you've hugged more and laughed here and there.
I hope God has shown up in your living room...the grace of God never ceases to amaze me. Its there and its plentiful.
Learning to accept the uncontrollable events that God allows...
I just can't help but think there are heart things to be learned in this stillness...
Accepting.
Bowing your knee to it.
Submitting to Him in it.
Leaning in to it.
Not resisting,
not running from or hiding from,
not seeking out constant distractions, or doing everything possible to ignore,
but instead,
accepting with contentment, what is.
having a posture of humility,
of being quiet, teachable, of listening....no matter what your losing or grieving.
Patient endurance.
Quiet contentment.
Consider "everything a loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus..." Phil 3
Anyway....truth is truth, no matter how uncomfortable.
...and also, learning to cope with things being less than awesome, gaining the ability to accept the flat parts of life is a pretty important life skill our kids are going to need. and this is good practice.
rant over.
3. WE'VE SAT IN BEACH CHAIRS IN OUR DRIVEWAY LIKE ITS OUR JOB. It's oddly relaxing. I've been so thankful for the multiple days of glorious weather. small mercies.
4. One of my favorite moments in the last few weeks, was when my Jake walked through the kitchen, paused and said, "Hey mom. You know how everyone is talking about how bad this is for us seniors? And how we are losing so much? I mean, I don't like this, I'd rather be at school with my friends, but I just heard a guy talking about how guys my age, back in World War I and II were oversees, in trenches, fighting a war. I'd much rather be here in my home, with my family. This isn't perfect, but I sure am thankful."
5. I wonder if a thing, an event, if you will, could never be posted on the internet, if no one would every know you did it, would you do it?
I think its a good question...may be an offensive suggestion. But its something I ask myself this from time to time. Its not meant to make you paranoid (but by God's mercy, we all are ill-intentioned, and we don't want to be navel gazers and overly introspective) BUT, its a great litmus test for why we do what we do...and something to teach our daughters. Question the motive and intentions of your actions. Questions prick your conscience, and a sensitive conscience keeps you honest and humble.
6. Our poor governor. I mean, the man is, I'm sure, not trying to kill Georgians. Whether or not you agree with his decisions, what happened to kindness? Since when is it okay to rip into a person, big or small, on social media? Maybe we don't have to share online, every single opinion we have, maybe. Sometimes, quiet is good.
7. I put on my jeans every 4 or 5 days just to make sure things are still good (or at least decent) in that department.
8. I really hate plexiglass between me and my sweet Publix check out ladies.
9. I wish I had bought stock in sidewalk chalk before all this.
10. Brad woke me up this morning. He taps me and says, "Hey. Get up and come have coffee. And I made you an omelet."
Me, because my eyes were literally stuck shut, I muttered,
"What time is it?"
he says, "after 7."
Because I know this sneaky trick, I repeat,
"What time is it?"
"7:15", he says. (it was really 7:13 which hardly counts as being after 7 but nonetheless I got up)
It was a good omelet and coffee.
Hang tough, friends.
~stacey
