August 13, 2021 – The 28th Official Friday Night BeerBlog

Post-pandemic there are going to be absolute times that test you. Absolutely. Your patience, faith, relationships, and resolve will all be on the line for debate. More than ever the knowledge that the greatest place to be is in the here and now will feel flimsy.

I hate to say that I enjoyed quarantine, but I did. A lot of things were just in a holding pattern. The world slowed down long enough for families to enjoy being together again. Our bike rides were meandering because there was nowhere to be at a certain time. And nothing compare to River Road with no cars buzzing you and the unpolluted endless blue sky. I could go on and on.

During the 2020 months I spent a lot of time teaching myself how to be still and sit in the moment. I had been busy for so long; keeping schedules of four people with activities months in advance. During this time there wasn’t any drama and the days flowed like water.

2021 hasn’t been the same. Post-vaccine has been a strange mix of go, no-go. With the hiatus over, a lot of things that have been holding back, suddenly burst through the dam. At least in my life.

I think now that we’ve all been pretty much through a pandemic; none of us will be the same again. I just don’t think the world will ever be the same again. I think we can all pretend to go back to normal, but it really is impossible. Ever opened a package of something and no matter how hard you try, you can’t get it to fit back in the same way?

But life goes on. The New Normal – I freaking hate that term. But it’s true. There will always be change, but literally nothing is the same as it was in 2019. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing was guaranteed pre-pandemic either, but now we all have first hand knowledge that REALLY nothing is guaranteed. It’s not just some catch phrase.

My life is no different from anyone else. For every “positive” photo posted on social media, there are four “negative” things that you don’t see. Illness, sadness, anxiety, frustration, depression, anger; we’ve got’em all over here. Just like you have at your house. We are all playing that balloon game where you bounce on yours to see how long it takes to pop.

We all tempt fate to see if the next situation will pop our balloon; unless we learn to sit with all of those negative feelings. For me, it would be so easy to just allow myself to become completely overwhelmed. And I’ve been close, but I am consciously working to remind myself what I learned during quarantine. To sit quietly, to gather myself; to be mindful, in the moment, and grateful in the knowledge that I’m doing the best I can. We all are.

Consider the old Zen saying, “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” I’ve never really understood that, until now. We allow our minds to race and obsess over things totally out of our control. I have found that allowing myself to sit and be allows me to arrive at the opposite shore sooner. I engage one of more of the senses and realize how awesome this moment is and everything else goes away.

Life is good friends. I will not lie. It’s not the same post-pandemic and it never will be. It’s time for acceptance and to engage your best coping mechanism to bring you some peace. On Friday nights it’s beer, but the rest of the days it’s meditation for me. It is definitely the best way to navigate all of those bumpy nights tonight and all ahead. And the price is right.

LLM

Ye ole podcast version:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822142/9026371