Everything is Weird and That's Okay

Last week, while in a fit of missing my students, I made my first video blog, which my brother-in-law has since told me is called a vlog. Will the wonders of modern language never cease? I didn’t think about it before I did it, I just turned on my computer and started talking. I told my students I missed them and then told them that I would be checking back in every weekday. With a theme, obvi, cause I work at a middle school and love a good theme week. I told them that on Wednesdays we would celebrate Wacky Wednesday.

When I said this, like much of what I say, I had not thought it through at all, the words just tumbled out of my mouth one after another making a sentence and a commitment that I would later second guess. Because now, I need to figure out an activity for middle school students, over the internet, it needs to be wacky and weird but also fun, because middle schoolers respond best to fun, it should also be educational, or at least “enriching” because parents will be expecting that, possibly, actually probably, it should also have something to do with school counseling because that’s kinda my job…

Only as I sit here, at my house, trying to think of how to get a message to my students, at their houses, that none of us can leave… it hits me. This, this is wacky. This is weird. There is nothing more wacky or weird than the literal life we are living right now. And so maybe its time we talk about it. Maybe its time we stop dancing around it and we sit down and name the elephant in the room. I’m home. You are home. Our government is telling us we shouldn’t plan on leaving our homes until April 30. Schools, churches, parks and stores are closed. All the places we used to go for comfort and the things we used to do for fun are no longer available to us. The world doesn’t feel the same anymore. It feels weird. It feels wacky. And I, for one, don’t like it. I like my world in order. I am not one to try a new food or explore a new place when there are dinosaur chicken nuggets to eat and the comfort of walking a well worn path.

This whole experience is changing us. Its stretching us and causing us to have to look some hard truths in the face. The world is not safe. Choices are not simple. Life is hard. There, I said it. Life is hard, and complicated, and sometimes scary. Those are true facts. Even as I write that truth, in the back of my mind is a little nudge. Just a tiny little whisper of a voice reminding me of something. Sure, dinosaur chicken nuggets are the bomb, but have you ever tried Banana Chicken? I know, I know, it sounds, well it sounds, weird right? Like why would someone put those two things together? But if you’ve ever been to Cora’s 1850 Bistro in Hawley, Pennsylvania, than you would know, its absolutely, amazingly, delicious. And, I love walking back to the tiny waterfall in the river behind my house, but have you ever seen Niagara Falls? There is comfort in familiarity, but life isn’t meant to be lived in comfort.

The world might be a scary place, but all these people staying home and businesses closing, that’s not scary. That is an act of great and sacrificial love to keep each other safe. Choices are hard but over and over people are making choices to keep other people safe, to prevent the spread of a disease that will have the greatest impact on our weakest members. My social media feed is full of families spending time together and offers from businesses and individuals to bring food to the hungry or comfort to the weary, of individuals sewing masks and donating gloves. I have lost count of how many posts I have seen of ordinary people doing small act of extraordinary goodness. I have never seen such an outpouring of love than when my children’s teachers began reaching out with assignments and letters and emails. “Call me if you need anything” I have heard over and over in the weeks that we have been home from friends and from strangers.

I tell my students all the time, watch where you put your eyes, that is what you will see. As human beings we are only capable of seeing the things that we look at. If we spend our time looking at what is sad or bad or scary we will see a world full of those things. If instead we decide we will find the joy, and laughter, and hope then suddenly we will begin to see it popping up all around us. It is an act of intention to see the joy in this situation, an act of faith to find comfort in our community, and an act of hope to offer it to others.

This is a weird time. This is a wacky time. This is a time that we will hold as a measuring stick for the rest of our lives. This is our Great Depression, or our World War. This is a time that will be forever seared into our collective memory. But this does not have to be a time of despair. There is much joy in this world, if only we decide to look for it.