This one is a life-changing biggie.

As I write this, we are nearing the end. We are just beginning to see a glimpse of a return to something. To normal? I hope not.

Before the pandemic I created this meme inspired from a comment a graduated teen of mine made to me. This was January 2020.

Hysterical. Now.

Then sometime in April 2020 I created this meme. I truly meant these words. But three months?!?!?!?!

What little we knew then.

This is what I know now.

The pandemic gave us all a reset because the pace of life before the pandemic was unsustainable.

Before the pandemic we were living in an ever-increasing pace of life.

You know this was an unsustainable pace because when you deleted those items from your calendar in March 2020 you felt joy.

We were exhausted from this pace as it increased year after year. We were living in the proverbial “frog in a kettle” and very few were jumping out of the boiling water.

The pandemic gave us this opportunity to jump out and recalculate our schedules. We had months of when we barely had a schedule. Then very slowly over time schedules were able to be made again. This time we have the option to not overschedule; to not run ourselves to the edge of our stamina; to not numb ourselves with crazy busy; to find that balance we proverbially make as a new resolution every new year.

Some of you have already ramped up your schedule to that unbearable pace again.

Some of you have not. Stick to your new boundaries.

I believe deep in my soul that our lives before the pandemic were unsustainable and there was a collective fallout coming. Our souls before the pandemic were already suffering so much. As was our mental health and our physical health.

Nothing was going to stop this ever-increasing pace of life. Then something did. Something we’ve only seen in the movies.

We were given a gift. This gift came with death (the real) and craziness (so many hypotheticals).  

The earth breathed, we breathed, and now we can create a sustainable pace.

Make those decisions. Find your new pace and let it be because that is enough. Appreciate this gift.

Sit back in awe and wonder and appreciate this gift.