Oh my! All the new things we are doing to keep spirits high and carry on a “normal” life. The list keeps growing as humans are incredibly resilient and we will figure things out. Right? 

We recently attended a drive-by birthday celebration. It was awesome! The birthday boy stood on the balcony of his home as cars paraded by, yelling from their windows “Happy Birthday!” honking and waving signs and banners, declaring birthday greetings. We have two more to attend this coming Sunday. It’s a thing now. 

Yes, human beings are resilient and adaptable, aren’t we? A year ago if someone had suggested that driving by and yelling birthday greetings would be a perfect way to honor someone, we would have laughed and said, “You’re crazy. No one wants to do that. Let’s have a party.” Right? Well, there’s more. I have four graduate grands this year from four different schools. The one at a smaller, private school is having a drive-up graduation ceremony. Kind of like a drive-in movie. We all understand that, don’t we? Apparently, each grad has been given a number of cars per family they can have attend (because we’ll be in the parking lot) and we’ll all sit in our cars while the graduates stand the obligatory six feet apart and receive their diplomas. (I’m still thinking through this and hoping there’s not a crazy excited parent who can’t stop honking so we can hear our kid’s name.) Well, more drive by parties are being planned. Some of my grands attend at church who is doing a drive-by graduation party for their graduates. I’m sure we’ll attend that as well. It kind of feels like a step forward to live out of our cars now instead of our houses. 

At least, I think it is. It all still sounds really strange and distant, but it’s better than nothing. That seems to be the name of the game right now. It’s all strange and distant, but we’ll do it because it’s better than staying in houses and seeing no one. 

Take wearing gloves and masks. Who would have thought gloves and mask would be standard attire in 2020. It’s particularly strange when you have to go to the bank, as my husband and I did a few days ago. Yes, walked right in that bank with masks on like it was the normal thing to do….because it was… in today’s world. 

Praise God the grocery industry seems to have had some kind of premonition that we would need pick-up grocery service because that has come in handy. And the whole internet thing. Praising God it was invented before a pandemic. Can you even imagine how many games of solitaire you would have played without google and YouTube and Zoom and email??? Then there’s Netflix and all the other movie channel possibilities. Crazy stuff! I can watch pretty nearly any movie from any decade at any time! There’s not even enough stay-at-home days to get all the movies in I would love to see. Not even in six weeks of quarantine! There’s just too many. And, what about going to church??? New level stuff, right? Sunday, I literally sat in my bed and went to TWO church services! I’m at home going to TWO churches. What? Is my name Judy Jetson or what???? I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m living in the future. Oh yeah, I am. The future is NOW. Judy Jetson ain’t got nothing on us. We might not be flying from home to home, but we’re wearing watches that count our steps; we have phones that show us the faces of our precious family members; we’re grounded, but have more things to entertain us than we can possibly get to; we’re able to pop the Sunday lunch in the microwave the next day and it tastes just as good; we can call in a grocery order and pull up to the store parking lot and someone will put it in the car for us; we can order paper goods and cleaning supplies and a thousand other things that will come straight to our door; we can get in cars and wave to family and friends and celebrate life because, however strange it seems now, is precious. 

Life is ever evolving, ever changing and, wow, praise God for sharp minds and clear vision. Our prayers for clearer vision have been answered as we have watched our world find new ways to do nearly everything! Genius minds in health care, the entertainment world, food supply chains, trucking industry, medical services, and financial markets and on and on and on have come up with solutions for nearly every problem the quarantine has thrown our way. Oh, it’s not over and every question hasn’t been answered, but praise God, many have. 

It’s nearly over though. Different plans are being put in place to reopen the world. So, what remains?  What have we learned? What have you learned? I’m still compiling my list, but it’s growing. Included are things like:

• I’ve learned I can still cook. 
• I’ve learned I need to be more patient with a stay-at-home husband. 
• I’ve learned life in our neighborhood is pretty good, even if we have to be six feet apart.
• I’ve learned that my tidy t-shirt drawers really do make me feel better. 
• I’ve learned that I can put on makeup and look nice, even if I don’t go anywhere. (Dolly Parton says anyone can look tacky.) 
• I also learned that it’s okay to not put on makeup and look nice every day. The people who love me still love me.
• I’ve learned that God shows up in the quiet times. In fact, He loves the quiet. So we can really hear Him. And, we’ve had more quiet time. 

That’s just a partial list of my “learnings” during the quarantine. My word, there may be too many to list, but I’ll keep trying.