With everything that is going on, we seem to actually have more time on our hands than we know what to do with. I have tried very hard to be constructive; painted the inside of my house, re-done bedrooms, moved furniture, planted a garden, (that certainly was a failed endeavor), and invested communication into each member of my family.
What that last sentence means to me is…I have been spending time getting to know my children and husband again. We aren’t the same people we were a year ago, much less, from when this pandemic began. There is evolvement, positive, and negative that comes with living as we do. There will be times when we thrive and laugh and play Frank Sinatra while we all cook together, and there will be a time when someone gets quiet and keeps their distance. I’ll feel like I have failed at that time, and we are weaker without them. Where is the brochure on this? Are we not being attentive to their needs? are we not helping them move forward and inspired to find a new route to happiness? Could it be there is too much social media? Too much news? Not enough interaction from outside friendships? There are so many fragments to this calculus problem!
Each family has its own functionality and there are most definitely places in the machine that need a little extra oil. The thinking in my head tells me, “Let’s deal with the things we can actually control”, we have this time! Let’s not waste it, instead, let us spend it.
One of those items I will touch upon today is EXERCISE. Let’s throw a little focus on that subject. As a mom, these mental and physical elements basically rest on my shoulders, or I just assume it does.
The best gym membership you will never have to pay for is 2 steps out your front door. Join that free gym! I tell stories to my family of growing up with 4 older brothers who were and are great athletes. It was normal to have piles of rusted, free-weights on the ground with an old benchpress beside them. We had rope scraps tied to groups of weights to wrap and roll up around an old hockey stick to build forearms, situps with flat weights on the belly, there were new lifts and exercises thought of every day, (strange, nobody ever talked about needing a tetanus shot!). We didn’t have much, but out of necessity, we made a lot from what we had. After lifting, we went running, this was also free. TV wasn’t a thing, gaming wasn’t a thing, and we didn’t spend time making sure each other was emotionally ok, it should have been, but that was definitely not a thing. I think back to those days often now as I try and go “old school” with this whole house of people I love and live with. GET UP, GET DRESSED, and GET OUT. Go move around, go push the ground away from underneath you. Sweat, breathe, and take some time for thought, meditation, and separate your mind from where you live for most of the day.
And talk to me. Talk to me today.
I will listen if you will talk to me. Hold nothing back. gripe, scream, complain, cry…just talk to me. Have faith in the talk. After you take that refreshing, cleansing breath and feel all of that relief, you are reminded to continue knowing and confirming that you are important, and you are loved…so sit back and relax…it’s my turn now.
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