Saturday, April 25, 2020

Orange Tulips and Yellow and Orange Tulips, I don't know why, but I just liked looking at them... Enjoy. 4/25/2020

I'm still going through my flower photos, believe it or not
all of the photos in these blogs have come from only one 
year of photography.   So I have a long project ahead of me.

I am not sure how you pronounce the name of this flower, but
to me it reminds me of the word "Stress".  Stress comes in and out 
of my life in strange ways since the Covid-19 pandemic started. 
Some days I do really well and other days I feel I am about to crumble.

Thankfully this week when my husband was the one who was 
really stressed, I was in a more calm moment in my life.  
So I was able to help him.  We are both still working, his work now
continues to have people calling in due to symptoms of Covid-19.
  It is scary, and then
at some point you get used to it. 
There is always the worry that you or someone you know 
will get this and you wonder will you be the one that doesn't survive?

The old normal of a few months ago is so long gone.
The new normal, while very strange is something I am
finding I can adapt to.  I distance myself from others, I 
wear a face mask and gloves all day long.
I have found masks that fit well and I don't feel like I am suffocating all the time.
I change my gloves often, and when I take them off my hands are kind of sweaty.
I will keep them off for a bit and as soon as a customer with mail comes
I grab new gloves and begin the hours of gloved hands again. 

Being home is the most blissful place in my life.  No mask, No gloves.
I am working up to walking 3 miles on my treadmill. 
 I listen to gospel themed music while I walk on my tread mill.
At home I try to surround myself with anything to do with my Savior.
I am reading two different books about the Psalms. 
I listen to a conference talk every day, I read the come follow me lesson daily and
also listen to the Book of Mormon.  

I am thankful for technology, that I can play something on my phone
while walking.  I find that I can get to a point where I am in a flow moment, where 
my body is moving, my mind is quiet and the words are flowing into me in
a calming way.   All the world is gone its motion and words of peace.

There are days when I come home and I have no energy left, and
I binge watch old T.V. shows with my daughter.  Right now we are 
watching "The Mentalist."  I just love the Sherlock Holmes  way that 
Mr. Jane uses to figure out the crimes.  I love those quirky brilliant minds. 
They are pretty bloody shows, so after I have to read a light romance novel
so that I can sleep.

Finding balance in this new world of ever changing rules
is strange.  It's like playing a board game where you thought you knew the
rules but the other players have decided it would be more fun to change  them
at each turn.  Each day there is a new rule, if you miss a day of work you come
back and there lots are new rules.

You have to be willing to flow with the rule changes if you 
want to avoid stress.  You have to just say I will go with this new rule, I will
be at peace with it.  Those who have a hard time with change are struggling the most in my 
opinion.  I  have decided I will be calm and embrace each change with a 
positive attitude. 

At work, I take peoples temperatures all day long, I wipe down the counters,
pin pads, door handles, any touch point every hour,
I answer phone calls all day.  Sometimes I am the person who 
listens to the frustrated customer for a half hour and assures them that we are
trying our best, and all will be well.  I listen to co-workers and give compliments.
I also have to uplift my stressed out college student trying to navigate learning on line and
not having the ability to get quick answers from professors. 

" Just let me vent Mom, I just need to get this stress out of me."
I hear this a lot.  Just one more week and the schools will be done for summer.
I listen to the fears of my husband as he comes home and another coworker has
called in sick. I let it slip in my ears and then back out.
I smile and say this will pass.  I trust that Heavenly Father is watching over us.

And it will pass.  We are being changed by this. We are 
seeing ourselves in new lights, we are seeing how we cope,
how we handle hard situations, who we turn to and what we
turn away from.

I thought for sure by this date things would be done,
I thought things would be more normal by now.
I'm not sure when this will be done,
and I don't know what the new normal will be.

I don't think anyone has that answer.
I have decided to flow with it. 
To not try to regain the old normal, but 
to allow myself to be taken to the new normal.

With each day I look to see what am I learning,
how am I changing.  I always have believed
your trail is taken away faster if you learn the lesson.

What is the lesson? 
What are we learning?

My dear friends this blog is my journal, it's 
where I can leave my thoughts of all that is happening right now.

I hope you are safe, I hope you are being taken care of.
I pray daily that the end comes soon.

It's not even that I want to get out and walk among flowers as I want
the suffering of other to end.

I don't want huge suffering to come.

May we all survive this time and be better because of it.

Within all this I can tell you there is still joy, there is still laughter.
At work we do have moments where we are smiling, were we have laughter about
something.  At home we are enjoying each others company.

All week long this week I made these really nice meals and 
had them ready before my husband left for work and ended up 
most times eating them by myself. 

Yesterday I got home and told everyone that it was left over night,
eat what you want when you want.  I got my food ready, and my daughter and
husband decided to get their dinner ready, and we are all sitting and eating
and my son comes out and asks why we didn't invite him to dinner.

I began to laugh and said, I told everyone that it was left over night, eat when you want.
I have made you all meals all week long and no one has eaten, and 
now you want to all eat together.  We got a laugh out of it.
Then we sat and talked, shared stories, laughed and felt blessed.

I think our young adult children are learning more about my husband and I 
and things we did when we were young than they had in years past.

It is lovely that our little family is having time stuck together.
These little moments are precious.  Enjoy the rest of the photos.








How are you keeping sane in this strange world that
we have found ourselves in? 
What things are you doing to keep calm?
Do you work at home?
Are you still going out and working?
Did you think this would be over by now?
G.G. 

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