Coming Back to Center

So everywhere you look, you’ll see negativity fill most news outlets on a daily basis. Businesses closing, markets crashing, people told they can’t attend church services, school buildings locked up across the nation. It’s truly difficult to not let the negativity consume you. 

Things are a bit different here at the #circus. Yes, the news is still filled with the daily dose of gloom & doom but I choose to see so much untapped positivity that has come from this COVID-19 pandemic. Life is a little slower now and definitely more close to home I’d call it. We’re once again a family that does family things together and not rush through the day to try and just complete the next task. 

Game nights, puzzles, card games, reading together, working in the garden, building a new chicken chateau, feeding cows together, sitting down for a home cooked dinner every night and getting up to make a home cooked breakfast each morning. These are memories that I hope my children will remember long after this is over. Just a family learning together, ranching together, eating together, praying together, loving together and living life together. 

Now, it’s not all a fairy tale here though. We have 2 kids who are still going to school via the new distance learning method and I’m trying to teach welding on a computer with extremely slow and spotty wireless internet service. We have 2 kids and a baby that eat all the time and a wife who keeps adding projects to my list on a daily basis. The kids miss seeing their friends, hanging out at school and my wife & I miss a little “me” time as well. We also now make a lot more trash, eat a lot more food and seem to have more dirty clothes now as well. Not sure why that is. Things are different but some good is definitely coming from this “super flu” as my son calls it. 

Have you ever been in a situation that you loved, were super excited about every single day and it made you extremely happy but also felt so overwhelmed, anxious and beat down in that exact same situation? That’s how I’d describe my COVID-19 situation. I know many of you probably feel the same way.

Eventually, we’ll get through the bad times of this situation and life will return to “normal” but I hope that somehow, someway, family will remain in the center. I’ve strived all my adult life to keep family at the heart of all my decisions and actions but I truly have the opportunity to live it right now in this moment. So as negativity fills the day, my family has truly brought me some joy and light to this situation. I hope yours has as well. 

Before I conclude, I would just like to give a huge thank you and shout out to all the medical personnel, police, fire, paramedics and all those who go directly into danger to protect, serve and safe lives. I’m extremely fortunate to hug my children nightly while many of you don’t have that luxury due to possibly exposing your family to this nasty virus. Thank you!! Until next week, make sure you tell someone I love you today