I’m very very lucky in a lot of ways. Just a few of those ways include having a job that I can do from home, not having child care as part of my work-from-home life, having pets that make life companionable and amusing, having a home that I enjoy being in and a work-from-home area of that home that looks out on a massive bank of lilac bushes that will bloom any time…. and so much more.
Some days are tougher, of course. Anxiety will hit, or my computer will stop allowing me to use one of the two virtual conferencing tools that I rely on, or stuff will feel overwhelming. But for the most part the rhythm of my days are keeping me going, and are well sprinkled with things that bring me joy.
Weekday rhythms
Early morning: Sip tea, watch last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Show, watch yesterday’s video from my pastor, make a couple masks.
Morning: Get a heating pad (for my feet) and a blanket (for my lap), gather a pot of tea and some fruit or nuts, and settle in for work in my “office.” Typically my cat joins me to sleep in the bed I’ve put on a chair next to me.
Lunch: Take a walk while chatting with my sister-in-law on the phone. Eat lunch. Make another pot of tea for the afternoon.
Afternoon: Settle in with my heating pad, blanket, and napping cat for the afternoon. Sometime around 3:30 or 4 the cat will come fully awake and want to be a part of everything, especially everything involving a keyboard that he can sit on. Or a webcam. Webcams are cat magnets.
Evening: Every evening I read one more chapter of a book to the kids from a few families I know (including my nephews). It’s been very amusing to watch a bunch of young kids learn the ins and outs of video conferencing. At this point they mostly handle muting and un-muting themselves quite well, and they do a lot of reacting to the chapter in the chat, which they found themselves. Amazing!
Dinner: Connect with my parents through video chat and have dinner “together” while watching a streaming show of some kind.
Pre-bed: I might go to bed at this point, or I might stay up for a while to make some more masks. It all depends on how tired I am.
I’m a person who lives by rhythm and ritual, and I’ve also always loved the sense of wrapping my house around me like a cozy blanket in the winter. So I’m probably ideally situated for these work-from-home times. But my mind also kind of slips off any attempt to plan how things will go a month from now, or two months, or during Fall term… or next year. I know a lot’s uncertain so living in the moment is probably a pretty good strategy, but sometimes I also wonder if I should work a little harder at making even preliminary plans for farther ahead. Maybe I’ll let too much sneak up on me and have to scramble too hard once that hazy future becomes very real deadlines and calendar invites…. Or maybe it’s ok that I lull myself with the ebb and flow of each day.
Time will tell.
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