January 2020

Hey girl,

I know you’re busy. You live in a bustling international city, your kids go to school 25 minutes away, they're both involved in activities, and you're teaching a class on Sunday mornings. You also lead the Bible club lesson on Friday, and you've got local friends you want to see and grow with after the family-centered Christmas holidays and travel. 

You still need to take the driving test and the language exam and let's not even get into the things you just want to do: an online theology course, a schedule for being creative, a workout program, a little supplemental nature study or reading lessons with the kids, a day trip for a host country history lesson.

Take a deep breath and enjoy it all because, in two months, you'll be moving into "unprecedented times." 

Right now you're busy. Everybody's busy. But in March, a Coronavirus pandemic will ravage the whole. entire. world and for a while, everything will come to a halt.

You will have no plans. Nothing will be required of you except to stay in your home with your family. It sounds so relaxing, and yet, it will be one of the most stressful seasons of your life. But it doesn't have to be. Here are several tips for you to embrace when precedented times end — and you should continue embracing long after this year is over. Your circumstances do not have to influence your attitude, so carry these tips with you in all seasons.

Pay less attention to the timeline. This too shall pass, but you don't know when. It could be two weeks, like they say, but it might be two months (it will be longer that that, too). Even when it's over, it will still feel like it's going on, because people will still be scared and socially distanced and you’re probably still not shaking hands or kissing cheeks yet. 

Reduce stress. The best thing you'll do is watch all the Harry Potter movies in about a week. Stop staying up way too late reading news. Plan simple meals for less time at the grocery store. Put down your phone and pick up one of the ten books you got free on Amazon prime. Have they been collecting in your Kindle for years, for such a time as this? Now you have time to blow your reading challenge out of the water! Speaking of water, you'll take two-hour baths every day of the quarantine. It's fine. Everything is fine. Also wrinkly. And quarantine weight is a real thing. But your pool won't open this summer, so enjoy those baths and don’t worry about your bikini bod. Enjoy your meals. Take time to celebrate the holidays. Teach your children skills you feel like they don't normally have time for.

Take advantage of the time and be creative. Write more, read more, take the class, lounge with your child on his or her bed for an hour after bedtime. Go slow and take breaks with online school. Don’t put pressure on your kids to do any more than their best. And if they can’t do their best, let them do something else for a while. Organize all your closets. If you can, find creative ways to connect with your loved ones — Zoom meetings, Marco Polo calls, a “quaran-team”, or parking lot meetings while sitting in your cars.

Be thankful and find ways to foster contentment. You have everything you need for this time. Maybe your family can begin new habits each evening that will carry on after your lockdown. 

The year 2020 has proven itself to be the weirdest year ever. You might have post-trauma emotions that are hard to handle. You might be frustrated and alarmed by the state of the world — economies broken, hospitals full, unnerving injustice, a controversial election, fires ravaging the U.S. west coast, flights canceled, and all of the reunions, weddings, births, graduations and recitals celebrated digitally and by drive-thru. 

But you can’t be canceled. This year wasn’t at all what you expected, but you carried on. And you will continue to carry on with the lessons you learned.

That's the thing about unprecedented times: you can't really fail because there's no precedent for success.

Rooting for you.

Love,
the version of you that was broken down and built back up.