Moving Forward

Moving Forward

A former teacher friend of mine posted on Facebook today that she was having a reoccurring dream about wearing rollerblades, and was curious why?

I remarked that maybe it symbolized moving forward. 

Soon after that when I was watching the latest update on the news I heard Governor Cuomo answer a question about when would we be returning back to normal?

He responded, “It’s not about going back, it’s about going forward.”

As I gave it more thought, I realized that if you live long enough you will find this to be true on many levels. After your children leave the nest you might find yourself feeling melancholy, and wishing that things were like they used to be. However, whether you like it or not those hectic days of parenthood are gone. 

You will be forced to move forward, and will experience a time of transition as you make your way to your new normal. As much as you might be looking forward to retirement there will be a period of transition as well. Your built in social network, and your purpose for getting up in the morning will have changed. 

You can’t go back, so you have to push forward. Eventually you will find yourself, hopefully, back in a good place, albeit a different place. 

So as a nation as we move through this time of uncertainty I hope the future will bring us much more prepared for another pandemic if it were to come. I can’t help, but think that all of us will always have a few extra rolls of toilet paper on hand from now on.  

As we have reached out more to friends and family I hope we don’t go back to our old ways of being too busy to stay in touch. I hope we treasure the face to face time we have with those we love when we actually get to be with them again. 

I also hope that as we move forward we see the value in a few more home-cooked meals eaten around the dinner table with our family. I hope we see the beauty found in stillness and nature. If we are doing our jobs differently or not at all for a period of time I hope as we move forward our attitudes toward the work we do changes for the better. 

Although, some parents will be thrilled to send their kids back to school, I bet there are some who were too timid to homeschool who might have found the confidence to do so next year. 

I hope in our move forward that we embrace our relationship with our creator, and not lose sight of our dependence on him during good times and bad. I’m hoping new habits are forming, as they say it only takes twenty-one days to do so. 

Now that may not be completely true, but if you are walking more now as a way to get out of the house why not continue to do so once this virus has passed?

I also hope that this move forward will also be a wake up call to your own health. If there is anything you can do to hold a chronic condition at bay I encourage you to consider not returning back to your old ways if possible. 

A lot to consider for sure, but we have been given the time to do so, and we might as well take advantage of this opportunity.