Pandemic Mindset
Usually the topics I like to write about have to do with farming, the food system and lessons from nature. This week I want to take a different road and talk about something I have been breaking down in my mind for a few weeks. Summer is finally here and it feels like it came on fast without warning! As a home school family we just sort of picked a last day of school and without celebration or really much acknowledgment we packed away our books and dove head first into the rigorous routines of farming in the harvest months.
We wake up before the sun and go to bed hours after it sets and leave little time for any leisurely activity around the endless to do list. Kelby and I started lamenting that it didn’t used to be like this. Is it because we have more kids? Is it because we are running our own farm business? Why is there never any time to do anything but work?
And then as I was washing dishes (every mother knows that is where all the worlds problems get solved….in our heads at the kitchen sink) I realized what the problem was. I still had a “pandemic mindset” ! You see when the world shut down, us farmers kept working. Since there was no social gatherings or events to attend, we just worked harder! We found new things to grow, new animals to raise, new food to create and it felt like we were doing a good thing. But as much as we all enjoy some peace and quiet every once and awhile. We need to rest, we need to laugh, we need to break bread and fellowship!
Before the pandemic our house was popping. We had campfires every week, stayed up way later than we should’ve. We enjoyed eating the summers bounty, singing songs and playing music with friends and strangers. I used to take our boys to the library once a week and the playground twice. When covid hit they taped off the playgrounds, they locked the library doors and if you were having a gathering at your house it was speakeasy style, don’t tell anyone! I realized that mindset stayed with me.
For the last 3 years I drove by that playground and even when they took the tape down my mind was still trained that it was there. It only takes eight weeks to build a habit but we were in lockdown for years. Sometimes I still hesitate to hug someone because the memory is still so fresh in my mind.
We can argue that the pandemic didn’t change us. Essential workers boast that “life went on” and they didn’t even notice because we were still working. However the reality is it really did affect us on so many deeper levels than we realize.
So my friends it is time to detox. It is time to set new habits. We must be more intentional to bring back the fun. I hope what I am writing inspires you, and sets you free to go back out into the world. Open up your windows and breath the fresh air! The pandemic is over so lets loose our pandemic mindsets and live!