As I write this, a big red truck is beeping outside my window. The sound of grinding pavement can be heard in the distance. It’s not the perfect soundtrack for writing, but here I am.
For almost six months now, our city has been digging up the streets around our house to replace our gas lines. And even though today there’s the promise of new pavement, believing it will all be over soon, is difficult. There’s been too many weeks of “no parking” signs posted on our sidewalks. Too many days of circling the block trying to find our way home because all—literally all—the roads leading to home are closed off.
It’s awful living in the midst of upheaval. Never knowing what the next day will bring. But all of this has just felt like a tangible metaphor for the life we’ve all been living these past eighteen months.
Every week it’s been something new.
Another thing to worry about. Something else to reschedule. There’s been ever changing policies and opinions on social distancing, masking, and/or vaccinations. In July it felt like the world was opening up again, but now we’re all bracing for it to close down as winter approaches and Covid cases rise. It’s felt like the roads surrounding our lives have been closed or rerouted so many times, it’s difficult not to feel anxious or even depressed about the future. But perhaps worse than that,
The present is not what we thought it would be.
Many of the plans we made for 2020, are still not realized in the fall of 2021. If we were hoping for a particular life change (job, relationship, etc.), chances are, it hasn’t happened. Whole areas of our lives feel on perpetual hold. Only, we can’t wait for the pandemic to be over. We have to keep figuring out how to continue living in the midst of it.
How do we “choose joy” when it feels in short supply? How do we make the most of what we have, when we’re so aware of what we’ve lost? Or of what we’re still missing?
Lately, this has caused me to wonder what contentment looks like in the face of all this disappointment and the daily heaviness Covid brings to our world. How do we “choose joy” when it feels in short supply? How do we make the most of what we have, when we’re so aware of what we’ve lost? Or of what we’re still missing?
Over the next few weeks, here on the blog, I am going to be writing about contentment. Only, I won’t be talking about it in the general sense. I want us to work together to discover how to find peace with our jobs, living situations, relationships, our bodies, and even ourselves. It’s a tall order, I know. Yet the more we struggle inward with our life not being as it should be, the less energy we have, to deal with what is.
The more we struggle inward with our life not being as it should be, the less energy we have, to deal with what is.
Before we dive in deep though, today I want to share one thing that is helping me find peace. Each week, I’ve been reaching for moments of quiet. Short thirty minute or hour long reprieves from my to-do list and all that is causing my heart to ache.
In August, this looked like taking a break from social media all month. But this season, it looks like getting up early three times a week to slowly rebuild my yoga practice. I’m also making space for small creative projects that in many ways I have no time for right now. It may seem impossible, but doing these things even for a short window in my schedule, restores my soul.
Contentment doesn’t come from having all our ducks in a row, or having life look the way we want it to.
Contentment doesn’t come from having all our ducks in a row, or having life look the way we want it to. It’s starts with these small acts in the quiet that reorient us. I will talk more about this in the coming weeks. But in the meantime,
What is “not as it should be” in your life?
How can you find one small moment of peace this week?
Friends, I am back and getting into the swing of things since taking August off. If you want to know more about how to survive this change of season, or about what’s been going on with me (what I’m reading, listening to, etc.), subscribe to my email list here, and receive my Five Ways to Declutter Your Mind PDF for free!
