I am currently osculating between denial and acceptance pretty consistently every other day. Yesterday was a particularly dark day in my mind. I gave myself permission to be saddened by the idea that my daughter will likely be robbed of her last quarter of her kindergarten year. I thought of the economic crisis we are only just skimming the surface of. I wrote about where I needed my thoughts to go, because a brave face in isolation with children is heavy (you can read it by clicking below).

But today, I have opted to change my internal perspective. A dear friend sent this message, which helped me shift my view:

Photo credit Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer

It got me thinking about opportunities to think differently, perhaps changing our perspective towards forced isolation with our families. If we look at it in the way we present our children with consequences, in our new-aged-parenting-wisdom, we don’t put them in a chair or on a timeout, we sit with them in a “thinking corner”.

Maybe we could view this as an opportunity for introspection.

I feel like every home-bound adult has been forced to look inward as our pace of life has shifted.

Before we were in isolation, my baby wasn’t completely sold on walking. But in the past five days, she is committed, and confident. She’s a walker. I am wondering, if she’d been previously stalled because we were always rushing around when I had her strapped to my body, in the stroller, and car seat going from place to place.

See, I thrive in the busyness.

But maybe she doesn’t.

It’s something I could have only learned here; in my thinking corner.

The weight of the patience I must carry now, for my daughters, is heavier than before. Yesterday, it felt like a burden and today, I’m grateful for this chance to place things into their right categories of urgency. We have been handed a paintbrush to label once petty things “unimportant”.

It’s been six days, but I can say with complete confidence that when we come out on the other side, we will love each other differently.

We will love each other better.

If absence makes the heart grow fonder; I can only imagine the fondness we will feel, when we can finally all come back together hand-in-hand.