These past six months have challenged me in ways I have never been stretched before, at least not to this extreme. Everyone is dealing with loss in some way. Normalcy has escaped out of the door and feels as though she will not return. At least not like we knew her, anyway.
For a while, she flat out left us and was nowhere to be found. We ransacked and rummaged through the pieces the pandemic had seemed to leave at our feet. The older boys stood confused, hands empty with the loss of in person school. Stefan immediately was sorting through the shambles of a languid job market, on a quest to locate his next employer. Lincoln and I were simply shell shocked, uncertain how to adjust our fairly newly found routines of the gym, Bible study, play dates, the park, and time at home alone, to suddenly be in the house all the time with everyone.
Normalcy, she was missing for a long time. I am still not sure she has returned, but I think I see her coming down the lane. She looks almost unrecognizable. She has the appearance of one who has been on a long journey. I can see her silhouette is slimmer. She has certainly become leaner, stronger. Instead of her normal luggage you would expect her to have for being away so long, she only carries a backpack. It must have been an arduous voyage, surely too burdensome to return with all of her belongings. Her clothes are simple, practical. Free flowing hair has been tamed to a prudent ponytail. Her hands swing free, her feet are sure of her path home.
Although she has undergone quite the transformation, it’s still her. And while she has not quite crossed the threshold, I can hear her footsteps on the driveway, almost home.
Stefan has been working in his new job (from home) since last week. The boys and I began our official homeschool journey in mid-August. (That’s why I haven’t posted anything in quite some time!) We have some new routines and I am gradually working back in some of the old ones. Getting back at the gym this last week, picking up a book I’ve been wanting to read, and writing: sorely missed and necessary health needs for me!
While the old “Normalcy” may not return, I am relieved she has found her way back to us, even if she is hard to recognize. I am praying that she is on her way to your homes as well.
Philippians 3:12-14~ I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Jodi Arndt 