Here We Are!

Hey everybody! I am finally back! I know it has been a long few months and I hope everybody is doing well and staying safe. These last few months have found people trying to figure it out. By “it” I mean everything…life. Some people have had a harder time than others (and my light and love are with you!) and some people transitioned to our new normal with no problems whatsoever. There are also some people who feel as if others should be coming out of this pandemic with a new skill or something of the sort. Then there are also the protests and riots. What everyone needs to understand is that everyone’s reaction to everything is different. At this point, we are all just doing what we need to do to make it at this point.

This is one of those posts that is going to be a little different than usual. I am not going to necessarily give you a list of things or advice. At this moment, it seems like everybody is an expert and the last thing anybody needs is to be told what to do. I will say this: keep your spirits up…and I am coming from a couple of different places. As if the pandemic was not enough, I have to wrap my head around the racial inequalities and tensions going on in the world. That is rather difficult as a young Black woman with four young Black children. Yes, all lives matter, but all lives are not the ones at stake; Black lives are. Believe me, just like I know all Black people are not bad, I know all cops are not either. Unfortunately, here we are.

Over these last few months, I have taken several breaks from social media. I have taken breaks from writing (clearly!). I have taken breaks from the news (though that was kind of depressing long before all of this). I have taken breaks from talking on the phone and sometimes from doing anything productive. I would feel some kind of way about it…like I needed to be doing something. Then I realized that I was doing all I could at that moment. I was keeping my peace. I was keeping my sanity. If you have ever read anything I have written before, you know I am all about doing whatever it takes to protect your peace, even if it is doing nothing. I had to remind myself of that…and that brings me to my next point.

Time. Prior to this pandemic, maybe about a month or less before it started, I was stressed. I was overwhelmed. I was letting my cape get a little too heavy again. I was really at a point where I did not know how to stop simply because everything had to get done. I told my friend I wish I had more time, but without the hands on a clock…where time was just merely something that was bent to my needs and more fluid than a solid construct. I guess the phrase “be careful what you ask for comes to mind”.

When the pandemic started, I tried to get prepared as best as I could; I went grocery shopping beyond what I usually would. I ordered all kinds of supplies for my kids and myself since they would be learning from home and I would be teaching from home; I had planned to honker down for a long while. I wrote out a schedule for us (ironic huh?) because I needed everything to flow smoothly…I needed all of us to be successful. A few days into it, I was even more exhausted than usual. One morning, I was lying in the bed and I woke up about 8 something in the morning…and I was too tired to move. That is when I decided that, I did not have to. At that moment, I told myself do things in my own time. You know why? Because I could. Because who was going to tell me I could not? That is why. I laid in bed that day for the longest. I did everything but cook from that bed that day: helped with homework, posted and graded assignments…everything. It was at that moment, that I ditched the schedule and focused more so on a routine. That is when life got a lot easier! We all relaxed and become a lot more productive. I started making time work for me.

During these trying times, make sure you do what you need to do to take care of you and yours, so long as no harm is brought to others. Do what you need to do to protect your peace. Try to take advantage of the time you find yourself having. Try to do all the things you have been putting off. Make time work for you. Take breaks when you want and have to. Do not be afraid to try something new or just bask in the moment because one thing I have learned over time is that time, is one of the main things we can never get back. Nobody planned for this, but we are trying to make the best of it because, planned or not…here we are.

This wraps up “Here We Are”.  Be on the lookout for the next article! As always if there’s something you want me to address please let me know! In the meantime, don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe!