When we all come Home

These are very strange times. In an era where our technology can connect us so easily to people around the globe a virus reminded us just how connected we can be to others so far away. Distance is not as strong of a safety net as we thought or rather hoped. When faced with a global health crisis our personal safety has been on the forefront of our collective thoughts. What are we to do in these times of unpredictability?

The answer is a turn toward our homes. We find ourselves with new found time at home. Meant to be source of peace and comfort our homes should be the place we want to remain. Here we stay to maintain our health and wellness. While it is a place of safety and comfort these walls can feel confining when we think of all the chaos around us. Chaos is not just in the world outside it is right here in the very daily actions of our home life. Our routines have changed. Schools have closed, office buildings are locked, stores are no longer open, our favorite public spaces are no longer available for use...... We are unwelcome in the public places we had frequented. Homes are filling up with family members needing a place to go. It is disrupting. We are feeling disrupted.

The lack of choice in the matter is what is bothering many. The feeling of being caged is off-putting. Having to rebuild routines with more people at home has become a challenge. The adjustment to this dramatic life change has been hard on all of us. Forming a new normal routine is difficult. With everyone scrambling to build a rhythm to their day we all just feel lost in the process. Our work still needs to be done. The laundry needs to be done. Now dishes are endlessly being used. Children are underfoot and bills keep coming. We are feeling the piling of life on us more strongly. This pandemic has given many people more time to consider all these factors of life and face them. The truth is we are all struggling. We are struggling with adapting to a dramatic change in our family (personal) lives and being expected to do so immediately and with complete happiness.

This is not normal. It's ok to be struggling. It's ok to feel overwhelmed. It's ok to feel like everything is going out of control. We are human and are meant to experience feelings. Know that you are not alone in your thoughts. So many of us are trying to make the best of a very stressful situation.

I have decided to take back my comfort of home. I am taking moments in the day (and week!) to step away from the endless news cycle as an important way to ensure a more positive experience at home. Easier said than done. Some days I fail and that's ok too. I remind myself that the noise out there and especially in the social media universe is a dangerous and sinister place to allow frequent access to our home. We all seek peace of mind and peace of heart. One of my favorite humans and Catholic Saints is Mother Teresa. She was a remarkable woman. A pistol too! Practical and unrelenting in her efforts to make the world a better place to be. I found a quote she said and have been thinking about how in this present time how significant this advice is for us all. As we all are being sent home to maintain health and safety for our community now is the time to focus on rebuilding peace. Let us all begin to rebuild peace in our homes. May that peace at home make its way back into the world to set us on a path of love for our communities.

“Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.” – Mother Teresa

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