Is your mind still reeling with all that’s changed with our world amidst the coronavirus? It’s crazy to think all that’s happened for us in North Texas took place in a little over a week. There are so many things (probably) no one really expected. Our mommy blogger Stephanie gave us her thoughts on what she didn’t expect about the coronavirus. Check it out.
I didn’t expect:
To spend my daughter’s spring break roaming the bare aisles of a grocery store.
For planes, and all plans, to be grounded.
For there to be emptiness where water bottles and paper products used to be.
Schools to close indefinitely. (I am not a stay-at-home mom, nor a teacher, and yet suddenly now I am both.)
The storms to come, literally and figuratively. The streets are flooding with water, but also with fear and panic.
Social media to be so conflicting. Everywhere I look there is a different opinion or plan. It’s hard to know who to trust when all the voices shout so loud.
To be worried about simple things like hand sanitation, or the fact that I live in a house with an immune-suppressed spouse.
A virus would run rampant through our world.
But, I also didn’t expect:
It would unite us.
World leaders to all come together for the same fight.
To see younger generations caring for the elderly—stepping outside of ego to defend the defenseless.
Online fundraisers for food banks. The schools closed to keep children safe, but we are keeping them from starving.
To see churches close their doors and yet open their arms to those who differ from them.
That extra time with my child would unite us in a way we so desperately needed.
To find out that everything I need to survive isn’t on a shelf, but within myself. If I have strength and a roof over my head, I am among the lucky ones.
There are a lot of unexpected things happening right now in our country, our economy and our homes. It’s so easy to focus on the fear. But what’s equally as contagious as a virus is perspective. We have the opportunity every day to control how we feel, and there’s great power in that.
No season sticks around forever—whether it’s the preschool years or a pesky virus. The valleys are long and winding, but they aren’t forever. Circumstances change, and if we’re lucky, so do we.
I didn’t expect life to come to a screeching halt.
But I do expect—with perseverance, perspective, and hope—the best is yet to come.
Stephanie Hanrahan was just your seemingly average housewife until she grew tired of pretending and took an axe to her white picket fence (also known as making her private journal public). Learn how she traded her pretending for a panty liner on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog Tinkles Her Pants, where she chronicles her journey as wife to a husband with chronic illness, mother to special needs kiddos, and a woman who often unravels then finds her footing again.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hanrahan.
