I finally remembered the other thing I was going to blog about yesterday! While it happened yesterday I was still thankful for it today so why not add it to the blog tonight, right?

After dropping Gavin off at soccer last night Dominic and I headed to the high school to pick up his homework and paperwork for the next few weeks of online schooling. We thought it’d be a quick trip until we turned the corner and saw a pretty long line of vehicles waiting to turn into the parking lot. Then we saw the line of cars coming from the other direction forming their own line. That line seemed to have the advantage as they were turning right and our line was turning left. My initial thought was a bit of dread thinking that we’d have to wait a long time for enough people to let cars from our line in. Not gonna lie, I’m a little disappointed in myself for thinking that.

What happened next was awesome. Each car from the other lane let one car from our lane turn in before them. Each car from my lane waited until cued by the car in the other lane to go. Over the course of 20 minutes there was only one car that broke from this every other pattern.

I know, it’s such a simple thing, right? But here’s what I’m thankful for. Isn’t this the way our society is supposed to operate? What a beautiful way to have my faith in humanity restored with all of the unrest in the news. Each person helping each other out, taking turns, being nice to each other because it’s the right thing to do. It’s not often that I’m smiling and joyful while waiting in an unexpected line, but I was truly grateful for my time in that line. Seeing everyone being kind to each other reminded me that we’re all greater than the divisive crap going on in the world.

This afternoon our Express Leadership Academy provided a very useful and timely training on COVID-Brain and how to beat it. The instructor helped us understand the biological reasons many are feeling additional stress and how our bodies are reacting to it. Most importantly, she shared ways for us to take a deep breath and beat it.

Some of the solutions included remembering to play, to explore, and to be curious. Taking time to rest and breathe are also very important and she shared the concept of a two minute vacation. The two minute vacation consists of closing your eyes, asking yourself four questions, and picturing the answers in your mind. We did a short version of this and it was very powerful. Little did I know I kind of accidentally stumbled onto this idea with our mini-New Zealand vacation a couple of weekends ago!

What I’m most grateful for on this training was the awareness of the impact of COVID on others and a reminder of the power of gratitude. When someone asked my thoughts of COVID brain I guess I didn’t quite process the question the way others did. I answered that I’m taking time to be thankful for the opportunity to live through this time. Yes, it’s difficult and stressful, but it’s an incredible opportunity to grow and become stronger. Living through a tough time like this is an incredible chance to be pushed outside of my comfort zone to create positive change in my life. I’ve talked more with my boys about resilience in the past six months than I had previously in their entire lives. There are parts of this that suck, to be sure, but I am grateful for the opportunity to live through this. When I focus on “what I can learn from this” and “how can I be grateful for this” even the most difficult times become times I can be thankful for. The conversation today continued to reinforce the power of gratitude to power us through anything in life.

Thanks!!!