
By Tara Levy
2020 is the turducken of crises, and I’m riding it out on my couch.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m working hard. I’m busy. I have deadlines. I usually meet them. But it’s different now. I have a new lens to survey my workload and world.
I didn’t realize my perspective and priorities had shifted until the HERdacity staff asked how I could be so chill in the midst of all this. I laughed. But then I realized they were serious, so this blog post is my answer.
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I am doing what I do and letting others do what they do.
I am not an epidemiologist. I do not have a degree in public health. I am not going to solve the technical science of the pandemic. No matter how many articles or stats I read.
So I am trusting the experts to do their best work on this, and I’m doing my best work on my stuff.
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I am being nice to myself.
I like sweets. I like movies. I like reading. I like crafting. I like staying up late and sleeping in. I like spending time with my teenage son—and he still likes spending time with me!
I’m enjoying all of these things. Some of them, I’m likely overdoing. Oh well.
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I am forgiving myself.
That “Oh well” I just wrote? I’m doing a lot of that. I am accepting that I am living in a constrained situation, and some things just have to give.
Thank goodness for yoga pants. They both give and forgive.
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I am making use of all the time.
The time I used to spend on carpools, errands, time between meetings, waiting for people who were running behind or apologizing for running behind myself? I can use that time in better ways now. And one of the best ways to use it is to relax. I don’t know when my world will be able to pause like this again, so I am using my found time to take a breather and rest-up for whatever comes next.
When my son and I went on the Harry Potter Studio tour, I was heart-broken to not find a time-turner necklace in the gift shop. The idea of stopping time for everyone while I got to get things done had been one of the most alluring bits of magic in those books for me. Somehow this pandemic has given me that time-turner. And it’s even more magical because instead of just catching up and fixing something that went wrong, I am getting to rest.
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