COVID-19: The Finale

The Grand Finale

I’m not quite sure how I want to end my 7 day COVID-19 series with you. Obviously, we are still on lockdown. As much as we wish it was over in just 7 days, it’s gotten worse and worse. I know there will be a point where it turns and starts to get better and better and I pray that it gets better as quickly as it got bad.

To summarize these last 6 days, here are a list of my COVID-19 blog post series:

1. COVID-19: 50% print sale. This one was all about filling your home with joy and happy memories on the walls if you are going to have to be stuck at your house quarantining for weeks on end.
2. COVID-19: Recipes. Here I offered three recipes that made little mess, supplied a ton of leftovers, didn’t require many ingredients, and were family recipes passed down without much measuring guidance.
3. COVID-19: Cabin Fever. The third blog was all about preventing cabin fever. Games you can play with the kids. Projects you can work on. Ideas to make the time pass quicker and more joyfully!
4. COVID-19: Wedding Planning. You know I’m a wedding photographer and my heart is truly aching for all of my couples who have had to postpone their wedding months later because of this thing. This one was for them.
5. COVID-19: The Reset. This one was about resetting our minds, beliefs, priorities, and so much more during this time as we slow down and can reflect on what truly matters most in this world.
6. COVID-19: Finding the Positives. For so many of us, the scariness of our current reality can be a bit overwhelming. This blog gives you ways to overcome that overwhelmed feeling and maybe even prevent it in the first place.

My goal in doing 7 different days was to provide a variety of topics to hit all of my readers. I had a couple for my clients… Days 1 and 4. I had a couple for the moms that follow me… Days 2 and 3. I had a couple for the believers that follow me… Days 5 and 6. But what about Day 7?

Day 7 is a time to reflect. Day 7 is a time to rest. I want you to make sure that you are taking time to rest. And boy oh boy am I preaching to the choir on this one. In this season of life, I really don’t remember what the word rest even means. To the parents of 3+ children out there… how? Literally, how did you ever rest? It’s easy to think oh I’ll be stuck inside for 2 weeks with nowhere to go and no one to see… I’ll be resting plenty, but vegging out in front of the TV and truly resting are two different things.

When I say the word rest, I mean I want you to reflect. I want you to sit in a quiet room with your eyes closed and think through how 2020 is looking for you so far. I truly give thanks that this pandemic happened when it did because it gave us time to start 2020. Now it’s helping us have time to reflect on that and to make sure that it is unfolding how we planned. I would bet that most of you say it isn’t. Here’s your chance to fix it. Here’s your chance to get back on course and reset those goals and start working toward them again. Here’s your chance to get those ducks back in a row standing up all neat and perfect before the ball starts rolling again.

Don’t just swing through this by bouncing from one thing to the next to the next watching Netflix’s top 50 shows from start to finish. Take this time to grow. Grow in your spiritual relationship. Grow in your communication skills with people you love but can’t see right now. Grow in your mental capacity to handle hard, scary things. Grow in your confidence in yourself and where you stand at the end of Q1 2020. Grow in your creativity to create a meal out of NOTHING in your fridge. Grow in your unique ways to make social distancing feel not so lonely. Grow in the way you react to your kids driving you C.R.A.Z.Y. Grow in the organization of your business.

I end this 7 day series with a challenge to you to REFLECT and to GROW.

There is a prayer that I have had in the back of my mind since this whole pandemic thing started in Washington. What if during this two week period (or 3 or 4 or 8 weeks… however long it ends up being), all the workers that were sent home to work proved to their employers that they could still be amazing employees even though they were working from home with their kids running around screaming and doing homeschool? What if we proved to the world that when we come back from this, we are mentally stronger than ever? What if we show the world that we can control the impact of this virus here because we can fight every urge to go out and just stay in with our family? What if at the end of this whole thing… employers start to give a two-week break because their employees came back more fired up than ever afterward?

This pandemic has is changing our present and has the potential to change our future. It’s up to us if that future change is for the better or for the worst. Do not be the person that lets this virus steal their joy. Be the person who does their part to help society and looks at it as a blessing that leads to reflection and growth in ways that would not have been possible without this weird, chaotic change of pace.

Show your neighbors it’s possible. Show your followers it’s possible. Show your people that it’s possible and it starts with you my friends.

I leave you with this.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” Proverbs 27:17.