Stop This World

A quick post on this brisk winter night.

This pandemic has done a lot of things and brought a lot of trauma to people. One thing that I didn’t expect it to give me was something positive that I have never felt before. Contentment. I didn’t realize that this is the feeling that I have been trying to feel for decades. It is so easy, yet so hard.

I have always looked for the next thing to achieve and am constantly striving to do more. Achievement and being busy are engrained into my very being. The pandemic has required that I slow down and stay put in one place for long periods of time. During the summer I was able to be outside in the garden, but in the winter it is a different story. Social media is a complete dumpster fire, the news is depressing and I refuse to be miserable. I decided that I needed to take matters into my own hands and try some new things. Things that I may have thought were not fun in the past. This winter I find myself putting together puzzles, taking German class and working on my family genealogy. And do you know what? I am happy as a clam! On these dark, cold nights I am happiest with my 90’s country music playing in the background while I put together a puzzle of a Holstein cow at the dining room table. I don’t need to go anywhere and I don’t have to prove anything to anybody.

I’m liking this contentment feeling and I hope that it stays around for awhile. Here’s hoping that you can find contentment in your life, if even just for a fleeting moment this winter. I’ll just be here singing along to Brooks & Dunn in the meantime. Cheers!

PS – I dedicate this post to my sister and cousin who are the best line dancers that MN 4-H has ever seen. Not everybody can say that they line danced to Boot Scootin’ Boogie at the MN State Fair, but we did. And we completely crushed it….or something like that.