Waiting to Reopen

As life has hit the pause button amid this pandemic, I will choose to be grateful for what I have as we are all waiting to reopen.

As the quarantine here in Connecticut moves into its six—or seventh, or who knows—week, life is beginning to adjust to this new normal. I don’t expect to leave the house, nor do I long to do so.

This is what life has become, and I’m fine with it. We are just waiting to reopen, whenever that will be and whatever that will mean.

The Hermit’s Life

It’s been a fantastical experience for sure. Yale became an online university. At a storied institution with deep roots in American history and world-wide renown, I had to write papers without access to a library.

Ivy League students without access to a library. What a strange thing indeed.

I am, however, discovering that living life as a hermit may be my true calling. As we are all waiting to reopen, I find myself with no sense of urgency regarding the matter. I am happy to remain closed and at home.

Watching Children Grow

In addition to being able to live out a persistent dream of mine—never having to leave the house—I have also been able to spend an excessive amount of time with my children and really begin to know them in a way that I haven’t before.

It’s incredible how quickly children develop their own personalities, how quickly they become their own people. I am discovering this for the first time, and I am grateful for this time that I have had with them.

My daughter has even started her own YouTube channel. I’ve posted her first video below. She did all the editing herself and made some, well, interesting choices. But I cannot help but be amazed by how much she’s grown.

Being Grateful While Waiting to Reopen

As we wait to reopen amid this terrible tragedy, it is sometimes difficult to remain grateful for the blessings that we can encounter. There is so much negative on which to focus.

The inability to see my parents, for example, who are older and high risk. The potential inability to travel back home to Arkansas for the summer.

This is just in my world, which has been spared the terrible tragedies others have suffered.

Yet, I attempt to focus on the positive, and I am grateful for all this extra time I have been able to have with my family. I will try to appreciate it.

Even as most of my waking hours are consumed with writing papers to finish out a very strange semester, I will be thankful for my children and the time that I have had with them.

I will enjoy my son’s constant interruptions to talk about Minecraft or his progress in The Legend of Zelda. I will appreciate the noise from my daughter’s loud singing and piano playing.

I am grateful for so much, so much that I do not deserve. And, as we wait to reopen, I pray that some good may come from the tragedy that engulfs us.