This past Monday, a mandatory shelter order was put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.
So for the prior 7 days, there’s been no school, no extracurricular activities for the kids, no driving to work. That will continue for a couple more weeks at least.
We still have certain scheduled obligations –work-related meetings mostly for my wife and I– but most of the existing family time constraints were erased. Weekends are now wide open with nothing specific planned.
It’s been wonderful not having to be somewhere at a certain time, day after day.
I’m enjoying the option of doing what appeals to me in the moment, including doing nothing at all.
There’s now space between events. Which means I’ve felt less rushed, stressed, and overwhelmed.
When the coronavirus pandemic is finally over, we may well go back to a packed calendar. For many of those activities, such as school drop-offs and pick-ups, we have no choice. But in the short week of having our schedule reset, I’ve already developed an appreciation for less hecticness in our lives. For now, I’ll relish the slower cadence.