Good afternoon, my friends! And a most happy Monday to all of you. I hope your weekends were all full of rest and recuperation. After a lot of fun shenanigans, I managed to get myself to bed last night by the reasonable hour of 11:30 (I cannot actually remember the last time I feel asleep before midnight so this was a big victory for me!), although I did manage to wake up fully alert and ready to go at approximately 4 a.m. Thankfully, After some readjusting of the blankets I got back to sleep and settled in until a much more respectable hour of 9:30 a.m.
Feeling well rested, I headed over to start the new morning routine to utilize my office. I spent a couple of hours reading (both a new book my husband gave to me in addition to some poems from one of my favorite writers, Mary Oliver), praying and journaling.
Feeling a bit more centered, I had a lovely time picking up my father's guitar in earnest and got all of my music toys settled into place to practice some of my dad's and my favorite old songs. This morning I started out with the popular song, "Wagon Wheel," and for a moment, I truly felt I could hear harmonies drifting in through the rafters. A beautiful way to begin the day.
After that, I was just in time to come downstairs for a lunch date with Alex, who was about halfway through his school day. We watched the wonderful musician Martin Howley play some tunes, read some poetry, and tell stories via his FaceBook feed. At one point as I leaned my head over onto Alex, I could hear his heart beating metronomically in time with the tune. Again, just beautiful.
We took some time to set up some more resting spaces for Rory, who has felt a little displaced with the new routine and both humans at home 24/7. He is now finding even more lounging spots than he used to have.
Our good boy is now laying at the bottom of stairs as he dips in and out of Alex's virtual lessons with the students. He has definitely become a hit in the classroom.
Our afternoon consisted of working out with a good friend of ours who was doing a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout via FaceBook. It was a format I used to do in training using a deck of cards (although tonight we used two decks and four jokers-108 cards!) where each suit represents an exercise and the number/face on the card represents how many we had to do. It was good, sweaty fun and now we are hoping to settle in for the rest of our evening.
Tonight we are looking forward to calls with family members, near and far. Some we have not been able to connect with yet during this quarantine, while others we have been able to hear from more regularly. Again and again I am reminded of the innate human goodness we all have as we are restricted from visiting physically, yet continue to find ways to connect across the distance. Way to go, humanity.
I hope that wherever you are, whoever you are, you are taking time to acknowledge the positives of your everyday. If not, no worries, there is no time like the present. Great job, and keep showing up for you, my friend.
Prepare, don't panic.
-Allison
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