When Everything Stopped

 Looking back to a year ago, we remember the last outing, the last activity, the last bit of normalcy before all of our worlds changed.

We also remember the feelings of anxiety and fatigue we had to keep up with the schedules we had created.

We remember the conversations we were already having about the changes we were ready to make in our lives. We wanted to slow down, we wanted to do things with intention, we wanted to go after the life we had always dreamed of living. We were already focused on budgeting and eliminating unnecessary expenses, and we were already making progress decluttering our home and getting rid of things that were no longer important to us. We were ready to start looking at other ways we could simplify our lives and move towards a life focused on the things that really matter.

And that’s when everything stopped.

Suddenly, there were no more early mornings, there were no more late night practices, there was no more sitting through evening lessons, there was no more rushing in and rushing out. Suddenly, we had nowhere we had to go and nothing we had to do.

Suddenly, we all stayed up a little later, we all slept in a little longer, we all ate together and played together. Suddenly, we were no longer a scheduling conflict to one another, rather we were each someone we could hang out with instead. Suddenly we played, we talked, we listened, and we learned. We enjoyed what we were doing and didn’t worry about what we were supposed to do next.

It was in that pause that we could finally breathe and ask ourselves, how do we really want to spend our time?

It is ironic that at that time we were already of the mindset of slowing down, and the events of last year gave us no choice. It turns out, it was the pause button we needed. It turns out, we found the life we had been searching to find.