The struggle is real. The monotony of life is getting to us all. I wonder how it caught up with us. Because for a while, we stayed ahead of the crashing wave.
My sister-in-law mentioned something that clicked with me last week. She attended the funeral of a beloved uncle, the twin brother of her mother in law. She joyfully loved and now missed him greatly. He was always so kind to her and her family. Because through his words and actions, he made it clear that he thought so highly of her.
We go where we are liked. We feel comfortable with people that love us, who don’t have immediate plans for our improvement. People who first and foremost delight in us and don’t look for things to correct.
The lockdown invites a closer look at all the exacerbated pet peeves.
As a parent, we can easily slip into parenting mode, correcting an awful lot every day. There are times we need to take a longer break from correcting, to not kill the spirit. The more we make an effort to observe the good and the beautiful and the delightful in our immediate family, the healthier we’ll be.
We’ve had a handful of great days back to back. So great that the girls would both exclaim at the end of the day: “today was a good day!”
Cooking what they love, listening, playing, letting them indulge once in a while with cartoons and iPad time… and then resting by myself without guilt.
Our batteries are still low. I’m not going to fool myself. A good day a great lockdown does not make. But we find coping mechanisms, we let things slide (like chocolate at the grandparents), we laugh at the absurd parenting discussions we sometimes have and the next day we do it all over again. I have never truly understood the Groundhog Day move. Now I do.
No matter what we do, as we struggle with monotony, we can at least try to think highly of those we love. And let them know we delight in them.