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When the lockdown began, I was ready. I was on high-alert mode.
For two months, I worked long hours from my parents’ dining room table and my childhood bedroom, taking breaks to walk along the cold windy beach until the beaches closed, and then down and around the cul-de-sacs of the neighborhood on the days after that. Sometimes, I played a little tennis with my mom — until the tennis courts closed, and then we hit the ball back and forth in the gravel driveway in the afternoons.
Read MoreA friend’s five-year-old has taken to calling the time of coronavirus “The Season.”
She doesn’t like The Season: No school, porch visits only, masks and physical distance. Right there with ya, kid.
It’s important to me to have a sense of ease in my work — but discomfort is also a key element of growth. The harmony between these two states is what keeps us learning effectively. We want to see juuuuust the right amount of discomfort melting into ease again and again, little by little, like adding flour to your eggs and butter.
Read MoreA teenage friend revealed — in front of his mother! — that sometimes, he doesn’t want to play video games.
I suppose three months of being on lockdown will do that to even the most devoted gamer.
“Sometimes, I just feel like…why am I playing?” And when this thought occurs to him, he might get up to eat or use the bathroom. Maybe he’ll even go outside.
Read MoreThere’s a lot going on right now. Many of us have experienced dramatic changes to our lifestyle and livelihood.
Any one of these changes would be a lot to get used to and would require a period of adjustment, and they’re all hitting at once.
On top of that, many of us are sick. And people are dying. That’s reality.
Read MoreMy friend Rose had an evening seminar-style class that ran for more than two hours.
An entire week’s worth of material, covered in one night.
Rose and her classmates found themselves acting like seventh graders. Despite the fact that they were all professionals with internships or jobs in their career field, they would giggle and get off track, carrying on exactly like teenagers.
They took the material seriously, but couldn’t always engage seriously. One day, however, they showed up and conducted themselves maturely. The difference was so marked that their professor commented on it.
Read More“I’m sooooo full!” said the ten-year-old at the dinner table, groaning theatrically. A moment later, she perked up. “What’s for dessert?”
Obviously, the special dessert compartment in her stomach still had room. Been there!
I can relate to the child’s situation metaphorically as well as literally. Martha Beck, in her book Finding Your Own North Star, points out that we sometimes find ourselves feeling ill or sleepy when we’re doing something we don’t want to do, yet our symptoms of malaise and fatigue magically clear when we’re doing something that we find fun and engaging.
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