Staying home during the COVID-19 brings challenges — but also opportunities to appreciate the things that matter.
Everywhere around us, the news is unsettling. Things we used to rely on to get us through the day are different, or canceled, or unknown. People are working from their homes, isolated to save lives — but desperately looking for connection to save their sanity.
And the kids are all home. Indefinitely.
Like everyone, I’m worried. My family is sick of me asking if they washed their hands, and bored by my three-times-a-day request to sanitize light switches and doorknobs with Clorox wipes. This week was the first week of remote working, and it coincided with spring break. I’m taking that as an excuse to not worry about distance learning for my 9,7, and 4 year old boys — they weren’t going to be in school this week, anyway; so like millions of other people around the country, I have a few days to figure out how in the world my husband and I are going to (try to) educate them, keep the house running, and work from home ourselves.
But yesterday, something unexpected happened.
My colleague and friend Jieun Pyun started a project a few weeks ago — she asks friends to video themselves reading a children’s book out loud, and then she shares it on social media, hopefully reaching children around the world. She shared the project with her Bush Center colleagues, and a sort of group chat sprung from it.
This week, the email exchange shifted to a list serve of sorts — idea after idea for how to effectively keep our children busy and learning at home without losing our minds in the meantime. We also started to share tips we’d gleaned from our work-from-home process, like how to set a background for our Zoom video conference calls so that it looked like we were on a beach somewhere, or how a group text chain could keep the water cooler chats alive virtually.
The longer the chain becomes, the less isolated I feel. I’ve always enjoyed the people I work with — when asked what the best part of working at the Bush Center is, the answer to me is always “the people.” But now I’m more grateful for them, and for their smart, funny, and thoughtful approach to slowing down and uncovering what matters.
That’s what I’m challenging myself to root into during this time of crisis — what are the things I can be honestly grateful for during this quieter time? Every day I uncover more. And every day, it becomes easier. When I start to feel that sense of overwhelm, a few deep breaths and a reminder of the things I can be grateful for is all it takes to reset my head and heart.
Reading with the Bush Center Experts
