Okay guys, with everything that’s been going on lately I thought I needed take some time to talk about what’s been on my heart and to help put a few things into perspective. Or at least to share my perspective on some things because I think we’ve been given a gift, and this might be the best thing that has ever happened to your family.

If you know me, then you know that the coronavirus has been on my radar since the beginning. Like straight out of Wuhan beginning, and I bet there are a few people reading this right now that would even admit to thinking I was a bit crazy (don’t worry I forgive you).

Long before toilet paper was a thing, I was stocking up on goods and essentials, and putting them into my handy dandy coronavirus kit. Now, before you pull out the pitch forks, I should clarify that I am not currently hoarding copious amounts of Charmin in my basement. I simply bought what I thought we would need for a few weeks in the event that we were quarantined. I wanted to be prepared. And like you, I had no idea what to expect. I still don’t.

It didn’t take long for things to implode, and for fear and anxiety to sweep through leaving grocery store shelves empty and people running around with way more canned spam then we will ever actually eat. Don’t act like you didn’t buy it too. It just shows you how bad the situation really is though. And I’m not trying to dis canned spam here,  but let’s be real, no one was ever really eating that stuff, were they? All I am saying is that there has to be a lot of fear in the air for it to be selling like hotcakes.

Anyway, the point is its bad.  It’s canned spam bad ,and there is no shortage of bad and scary news everywhere you look. That combined with the uncertainty of our jobs, our business’s, and our economy, it’s a recipe for a heart attack. Or at least a few sleepless nights and tired mornings. Add a bunch of cabin fevered kids to the mix and I don’t think I need to tell you where this is going. I have a feeling I’ll be sending out an S.O.S. all over again.

Like honestly. Saturday morning, I woke up and it was the strangest feeling. Almost surreal. Like I was in a dream. We had NOTHING to do. I mean nothing. No sports practice, no doctors’ appointments, no coaches’ clinics, no play dates. No date nights, no church get together’s, no family dinners and no swimming lessons. Nothing. literally nothing. It was like culture shock to my soul. I mean I’ve dreamed about this day for so long and here it finally was. Truthfully, in my dreams, I was actually checked into a 5 star hotel with no phones and no kids, ordering room service in a bathrobe but hey, close enough. The schedule was clear and this was as close as I was going to get.

In all seriousness though, I hated it. I had no idea what to do with myself. I felt restless all day. Like I was supposed to be doing something and I wasn’t. Saturday turned into Sunday and Sunday into Monday and the initial shock of nothingness began to wear off. As the news worsened and the cancellations increased (RIP restaurant dining), I realized that we may be in this for the long haul, and I started to feel like maybe I could actually relax and be okay with this. Like I could begin to enjoy the time we had together as a family. Instead of feeling guilty for not doing something. And I started to wonder… How many people were like me?

On any given day our family is pulled in a million different directions. Take Tuesdays for example. Aaron, (my husband), will get home for supper at 5. We eat, and then our son Ryan has cross-fit at 5:45. Our son Rivera has kids club at 6:30. Then Ryan needs to be picked back up at 6:45 and driven to youth group for 7. Rivera needs to be picked up at 8:15, and Ryan needs to be picked up back up at 9. Somewhere in between all that our oldest daughter needs to be driven to and from work, and our youngest needs to be put to bed. Not to mention we usually have a few extra kids in tow for carpool.

Even just writing this is confusing and exhausting but the truth is, we live like this every day. I’m not saying it’s wrong. It’s just life and we just do it, and to be honest, I don’t think we’re the only ones.

How many families out there have been running around for the last 5, 10 or even 15 years, racing from program to activity and back, running so fast that they barely had a chance to think about it? How many husbands and wives have spent years passing each other in the arena or in the parking lot or even at the front door trying to cart everybody everywhere only to meet at the end of the night tired and exhausted barely ready to do it all again tomorrow? How many of us have been cruising on autopilot burning the the stick at both ends while our marriages and relationships suffered? And then I started to think, this might be the best thing that could ever happen to a family.

A complete and total shutdown. As if all of a sudden time stood still and all we had to do was be together. This has never ever happened before. And it will probably never happen again. At least not in our lifetime.

And there it is. A new perspective. I’m looking at this quarantine or to be politically correct, “social distancing” as a blessing. Yes, a blessing. As a gift of time and togetherness that no parents and no families before us ever got and probably never will again. The gift of family movie nights and of board games. The gift of sleeping in, and of pancake breakfasts. Of after dinner walks in the park and of parking the car in the driveway and leaving it there for days. The gift of doing absolutely nothing, together. The gift of family.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my family, and my husband and I are still going strong. But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been missing out. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t been sacrificing quality time with each other for a packed schedule, and it doesn’t mean we haven’t been putting our marriage on the back burner. I think anyone who is married with kids can agree that more often than not our marriages become the last priority. All I am saying is that THIS IS A GIFT. Don’t waste it! Don’t spend your days stressed out about things that are out of your control and don’t spend days on end being anxious about things that may or may not happen.

It’s going to be okay. You will be okay! And everything will eventually work itself out. If it doesn’t, we will all be here to pick you up.  Your friends, your family, your community. You’re not alone and the world is not hanging on your shoulders. It’s going to be okay.

Yes, times right now are scary and yes there is a lot of uncertainty, but we have an amazing opportunity here. We get to write the story. We get to decide what they will say about us 100 years from now, and we get to decide how we reacted and how we treated others. You decide if we are remembered for our toilet paper wars or how we came together as a family, as a community, and as the world.

For the first time ever, we have been given the gift of perspective. To strip everything away and to see what truly matters. Family. Community. People.

So do me a  favor, stop reading the news every five minutes and put the phone down. I promise you; you’re not missing much. Dust off the board games and the puzzles and grab a pair of your comfiest pants and bunker down. Order the take out and support the local restaurant who desperately needs your business and for goodness sake, stop with the toilet paper. Spend time with your spouse after the kids are in bed and remember why you liked each other in the first place. Enjoy this gift while you have it because before you know mother nature will flip the switch and we’ll back to business as usual. Hopefully stronger and a little more united because of it.

Lots of love,

Laila