TL;DR:
- We all need to take a moment to recognize the little things.
- Take a moment of gratitude for yourself.
Because there is almost always a lag time in publishing and because my current reality is changing sometimes by the hour, I don’t know where the world will be when you read this.
But as I sit here typing, my entire state of California has been under a “shelter in place” order from our government for over a week because of the global pandemic as a result of the COVID-19 virus (also known as The Coronavirus).
Here are some thoughts I’d like to share about one specific experience I had earlier in this week.
*I took the picture on my phone on the hill above my house during our walk.
It’s Thursday afternoon. Other than stepping out in the backyard for a few minutes of fresh air, I’ve been in the house since last Sunday morning. I’m trying my best to stay in, avoid stores, even ignore other human beings.
The last time I went to buy groceries, it was such a strange choreography to want to be nice and kind and patient with people–especially in regard to thanking the grocery story and bulk store employees, expressing gratitude for their presence there–while also keeping a broad distance between myself and others and trying very, very diligently not to touch a single thing.
It’s been exhausting.
But today, my daughters and I took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a cool day, but beautiful.
We saw a friend walking her dog* and she mentioned how she was anxious because she couldn’t find her cell phone, though she knew she had it at the beginning of her walk. My daughter dialed the number of our friend’s cell phone and a stranger picked up the phone, answered it, and said he’d leave it on the green electric box where he found it.
As we kept walking, we ran into the stranger and his daughter who were walking their dog.
Our friend got her phone back.
People helping people.
That’s what it’s all about.
That 25-minute walk was a beautiful reminder that sometimes it’s the small things that matter.
And that helping somebody else makes everything better.
It also reminded me that what we’re going through is merely an inconvenience and not yet, at least for us, a sacrifice.
The moral of the story is that we have been given an unprecedented opportunity to slow down, take a breath, figure out what’s important, and really see each other.
We have been given an unprecedented opportunity to slow down, take a breath, figure out what’s important, and really see each other. Click To TweetI hope that, after this is all over and our lives return to some semblance of our “normal,” that we not forget the importance of moving more slowly, more thoughtfully, more intentionally.
And that we remember the importance of kindness, and of reaching out to help others.
As you navigate your way through these crazy times, I hope you’ve had a good day and can find moments in your own life that are small, but beautiful. That are full of beauty, love, and kindness.
And if we are all still in quarantine when you’re reading this, I hope that you and yours are staying safe, healthy, and calm.
Take care of yourself.
* And yes, all of us stayed very far away from each other.
[scroll down to keep reading]
ABOUT DAN TRICARICO
Dan Tricarico has been a high school English teacher for nearly thirty years. He is also the author of The Zen Teacher: Creating Focus, Simplicity, and Tranquility in the Classroom (DBC, Inc. 2015) and Sanctuaries: Self-Care Secrets for Stressed Out Teachers (DBC, Inc. 2018). In his spare time, he enjoys writing, listening to music, reading mystery novels, watching movies, and staring out of windows. One of his first loves is writing poetry, and he has published many poems both in print and on-line.
