Pause and Reset in Today’s World

This begins our series called “Connection Reflections.” We hope these messages will warm your heart and make you smile during these times of “distancing.”

Guest Post by author Angie Gallion

The 13^th of April marks one month since my kids’ school closed down. We have been here in the house together since then. My husband didn’t start working from home until a week later, but since then, it’s been the four of us, finding places for alone time, coming together for games and meals and conversation. It’s been long walks with friends, from six feet apart. It’s been me offering aid on homework that I’m not really equipped to instruct. It’s been me pulling out recipe books and learning how to make bread, pizza dough, and lentil dahl. It’s been me learning how to cook from the pantry rather than eating by “what do you feel like tonight.” It’s been my husband on conference calls and planning ahead. It’s been my kids laughing and fighting and laughing again.

One of my girls read Little House on the Prairie, and I thought about how she might understand the life the pioneers lived a little better now, after living on lockdown due to COVID-19. My other daughter searched the troves for post-apocalyptic novels that I might approve. We started a rummy tournament. We cleaned off the playset out back, and we used it for the first time in a year. We picked up sticks and branches after a storm knocked down a tree in the front yard.  We raked leaves that we had neglected for too long. We went to church together, from our living room. We watched couch concerts and made popcorn on the stove, the way my mom used to.  

It’s been the strangest of times. As the rest of the world is feeling disconnected, I’m feeling more connected than I have in ages. My social media usage has plummeted. The screen time on my phone is almost nil. What was I doing, before that I was always focused somewhere else? I think I needed a reset. I think we all needed a reset.

My husband created a Facebook group called Sense of Community Project to highlight all the good he was hearing from people and companies stepping up to help all of us through this time. Maybe that’s what will come out of COVID-19. A reset toward kindness. Maybe athletes and stars and giant companies and small companies will remember the people. Maybe the people will remember the neighbors. Maybe we will all remember what it was about our spouse that made them the one. Maybe we’ll all figure out what kind of books our kids like to read and who they are when they are not somebody else’s for most of the day. Maybe we’ll learn how to cook and stop eating from factories. Maybe we’ll continue checking in with the older folks in our lives to make sure they are safe and getting by. Or maybe just I will.

I’m sure there will be divorces and bankruptcies and businesses that struggle to survive through all of this. Will there be a new baby boom? Will this somehow make us better people?

I already feel nostalgia for this period in our lives, when we were forced to be together. What will my kids remember about growing up as ours? Will they remember how busy we sometimes were or how sometimes we were away from each other for business or book events, or will they remember this time, when whole world paused and reset? I hope they will remember these weeks, because I know I will. I hope you all stay safe out there.

Angie is the author of The Alison Hayes Journey, a much acclaimed four-book #adultsurvivor series (in order, these books are Intoxic, Purgus, Icara, and Emergent), as well as a #psychthriller called Off the Dark Ledge. All can be purchased here on this site or at your favorite book retailer, in both print and digital formats.