How are you doing this week?
For us, the pandemic has started to hit very close to home. We had a close friend who was inadvertently exposed (and very thankfully tested negative this week - but oof). Our beloved local closed down after someone went in while sick and exposed everyone there. Our county is under a mandatory mask order (which unfortunately, it seems few are following). Florida in the summer isn't made for being outside (it's unbearably humid and hot when it's not raining and thunder-storming, and the air is always filled with bugs) so restaurants are seating inside, not out, with little social distancing. Curbside pick-up protocols have been very hit or miss. Local workers are openly protesting the safety of going back to work at the theme parks which are opening back up. And because the state is "open", parents are being expected to physically return to their offices - with no real answers on what to do with their families in the meantime.
It just doesn't feel great here in Florida.
And yet, across the country, I know things are very different. Some lives are returning to a semblance of normalcy. Which creates a strange and rather uncomfortable disconnect when viewing how other people are able to live right now. Part of the discomfort is jealousy that other places have handled this so much better, part of it is fear for those we love.
This week I've had to remind myself repeatedly that continuing to treat everyone, especially ourselves, with grace is the only way forward. I don't know what is really happening in their day to day life any more than they can see into mine. And we're in unknown times.
So, to distract myself from the constant worry, I've been trying to stay exceptionally busy. With the house, with work, with reading. Finding ways to escape so I can carry on mentally.
This weekend I'm hoping for more of the same - lots of busy work, a few stolen moments outside in the early mornings to get some fresh air in my lungs, and small comforts.
Here are a few things that have brought me joy this week, and I hope do the same for you, wherever, and however, you may be.
