Nine Down, Three? To Go (5/31)

  5 of 31 - SOLSC 2021

Early last March it had become apparent to me that things were going to be different for a while. The first day of students being home I tried to peer into the future and realized it stretched much further than I wanted to think about - probably until the following summer. 

In the face of potentially being overwhelmed by the unknown I decided that I needed to think in smaller chunks. I chose 40 day chunks. We were in Lent and 40 had the Biblical backing of Noah and Moses and Jesus. (I was really hoping for the 40 days, not 40 years parallel!)

The first 40 days was about surviving; making it through each day. The first 40 day journey I was mostly numb. April 18th arrived and I was ready for a new lens. How could I make a schedule that would get the things that had to get done accomplished and also carve out a moment or two for something that might sustain me?

And so the journeys went. I wrote down the start day for twelve 40 day chunks and crossed off each one as it passed. I tried to notice themes for each chunk and reflect on the journey. July 7th began the 4th chunk. Having lived through a fourth, a mere fourth, made looking ahead seem so daunting. So I focused on the chunk I was in. Day by day I moved from barely getting by to living my life. Yes, it was a life I would never have imagined, but I was OK. November 4th tipped the scales into the second half. The path forward was now shorter than the path I had come. It is not that I think things will be back to 'normal' at the end, but I do expect that we will have an idea of what to expect life to look like. And then somehow, yesterday, while I wasn't noticing, we started the tenth 40 day journey. When I cross this one off there will only be two left. One step at a time...