The Longest Days
Who ever wrote “the days are long but the years are short” never lived through a pandemic with kids. I would argue that the days have been long, and this year has been the longest, ever. The longest days. The longest year. Ever.
I have not had it that bad. While I do work from home, I am not working full time (my choice, on a number of levels, and one I made way before all of this happened). My kids have gotten along, for the most part. We have been blessed to be able to keep doing some things, while we’ve also given up a lot of what we considered “normal” before.
Our internet works great – and I am so thankful that technology challenges (technology guru, and other random mom jobs) have been minimal over the course of the endless months this year.
We have managed to spend a lot of quality time together. And while everyone had growing pains with that in March and April, when one (or all) of my kids have had to quarantine this fall, it has worked ok.
So, after months and months of what has been the longest year, with the longest days? We are ok! We have come so far.
That is not the case for everyone, and my heart goes out to all of the small business owners who are struggling to keep their doors open, to the restaurant owners and to anyone who does not own what government considers an “essential” business.
Friends, this year has been so long. This year, we have seen and met challenges we never thought we would face. We have done so much! And there are so many things that have been better: more regular family time, quality time at home, the ability to work on Home Improvement projects, cleaning out closets and basements, family game nights and craft projects to make things fun (May Baskets). Many of us have had all of those blessings.
But, there are also people in our communities who do not count extra time at home as a blessing. Children who are not safe. Families who do not have the ability to work from home. For those who are vulnerable (in a safety sense, not to the virus), this year and its challenges has not been good.
I talked in early August about the Return to School debate and what was best for the majority of kids and families. With many schools making the decision in the last week or two to go to complete remote learning until January – when the numbers show us that children are the least vulnerable to this virus, and there are so many who are not safer at home – this continues to be a concern.
There is value in people taking a step back and being more careful again, with virus numbers up and concerns about holiday gatherings. Team Juggling Normal is doing our part – as we talked about last week in our Thanksgiving post about our various scaled-down celebrations – and we want everyone to be happy and healthy.
If you are sick – stay home! Please.
For those of us who are healthy, we are all looking for as much “normal” as we can get. When I named this web site, I never imagined all of the various ways we would commiserate about the “old normal” versus the “new normal” this year. We never could have predicted all of the crazy things!
This year has definitely been a doozy! The longest days. The longest weeks and months. The longest year.
I have several friends who participated in the various vaccine trials this year. They are amazing people and I am so thankful to know people who stepped up and volunteered! This is a new vaccine, and anything new can be scary. I do think it will be safe. I think it will work. And I hope that the vaccine will allow us all to have a little more normal.
Until then, we are all still in this together. We are all still doing the things, through all of the longest days.
As the days grow shorter and we get closer to the end of the year, remember what we have all managed to do this year, and keep ordering take out from your favorite restaurant! Keep supporting your local small businesses. Shop local if you can.
To the business owners: we’ve done it this long, hang on just a little longer. I know we’re all stretched thin. In this holiday season, let’s all try to give grace, have patience, and help one another out as much as we can.
This has for sure been the longest year, with the longest days. And 2020 is almost over! Let’s keep doing all the things, loving our kids, and helping our friends, as long as we need to.
At some point (we don’t know when exactly), this too shall pass and we will get back to some semblance of what used to be “normal” – and if you want to change up your “normal” a little bit, Take a Chance and use this time as an opportunity to do something new or different.