@bethvogt

I went to a restaurant for the first time yesterday, after saying “yes” to my friend Shari’s spontaneous invitation to lunch. As I drove to the Thai restaurant, I realized this was my first time eating out since Colorado closed down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s been almost 3 ½ months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.

That’s 15 weeks.

Or 105 days.

Or 2,520 hours.

We’re caught in a virtual tug-of-war between some states “opening back up” – a term we didn’t even use 105 days ago. Meanwhile, other states are holding steady with lockdowns or are increasing the time businesses will be closed and masks will be worn. Toss in the ongoing protests and no one is labeling the next couple of months the lazy days of summer.

We’ve all been marked by this passage of time. We’ve experienced financial challenges. Health challenges. We bear emotional bruises caused by trying to figure out every single day of all of this.

And here we are again, with more stuff to figure out. Things are changing even as things are staying the same.

One question many people are asking is, “What will change in your life once the pandemic is over and you get to go back to your normal life again?”

Well, not the before COVID-19 normal, but the after COVID-19 normal.

That’s a wonderful thought, isn’t it? The truth that we get to choose how our life will look as restrictions are lifted. We can decide to go back to the way things were on March 10, 2020 … or not.

Back then – 2, 520 hours ago –we were well past making New Year’s resolutions and choosing One Words to focus on. There was some sort of rhythm to our year – and then global pandemic disrupted, well, everything.

But now is the perfect time to stop. To be thoughtful. To be deliberate in our choices about what we do and don’t do in coming weeks.

It helps to silence all the voices telling us what we should do and must do. Avoid rushing too quickly back to what we were doing. Instead, why not consider our values, what we consider important in life, and then begin to act?

Perhaps if asked, you could state your core values easily. Things like:

• Balance
• Creativity
• Faith
• Kindness
• Justice
• Success
• Wealth

Not sure what your values are? It’s the perfect opportunity to ponder what’s driving your choices.

Whether we realize it or not, our behavior reflects our values. And yes, our actions speak louder than our words. We can say we value honesty but choose to continue to harbor unhealthy family secrets. We can say we value success – but have we taken the time to define what success looks like? Are we living out our values or someone else’s?

Here’s to moving forward in the days ahead. To making choices based on what’s important to us. Care to join me?