Exploring thoughts with purpose ℠
For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord.
– Jeremiah 29:11-14
When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
– Matthew 14:15-21
Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
They said to Him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
And He said, “Bring them here to me.”
Then He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
– Jesus in Matthew 13:3-9
I will bless the Lord at all times;
– Psalm 34:1-3
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His name together!
Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.
– Victor Hugo,
Les Miserables
It’s okay to sing in the rain.
No –
It’s good to sing in the rain!
How else will you know you’ll make it through?
How will you make it through if you don’t know you will?
That’s the secret nobody teaches you.
We can pull through – we always have.
We just have to keep moving forward.
Just have to keep singing in the rain.
With the exception of eggs, things seem to simply be going my way.
Okay, so there are always minor things (like eggs and oddly reduced store hours) that are probably tossing many of us for a loop right now. Some are less fortunate as they have to endure the actual illness or put themselves in serious danger of contracting it. (Thankfully, the United States currently seems to have enough hospital beds and ventilators to keep pace with demand, and archaic regulations were recently waived to enable manufacturers and retrofitters to keep ahead of the turbulence. To the elderly in Italy, you have our prayers.)
I have a tendency to turtle up inside when given the option. I way prefer working in the office to working from a shelter-in-place scenario, but otherwise, I’m game for a snow day. Or a snow week. Or an Ice Storm of ’98. Just keep us to under two weeks of being unable to enjoy the light of day and I’m probably good.
Anyway, I was running exceptionally low on soap this morning, so I needed to venture out into an actual store. (Yikes, right? Thankfully I’m neither paranoid nor concerned about my immunoresponse systems.) Given several different factors, I opted to try the discount chain I frequent over the standard big box stores.
I walked in and was greeted by a full shelf of various soaps, boxes of gloves, and other personal cleaning supplies. (One of the soap products was made with volcanic ash. Simultaneously cool and not something I want to spend the premium to use.) I meandered about seeking some other things I was/am running low on. And you know what?
The shelves were full. Every shelf had product on it.
I found the actual handsoap aisle and discovered they keep soap in stock that my grandmother loves. (It’s a high quality soap with a mild scent.) As it made me think of Grandma, it went into my basket. I was in a pretty good mood walking in, and finding that just perked my ears higher. I got Grandma soap. I even managed to rationalize buying a six pack of it when one will probably last me a month. (They didn’t have singles of that kind of soap, and I wanted that one.) And the cashier was simply fabulous; we had a great little conversation, and I’d hop in her line any time.
After a successful venture there, I went to a normal grocery store to get eggs.
They were closed. At 7:15 pm, the grocery store was closed.
*Eyebrows furrow.*
Oh well. I shrugged it off and drove to the nearby supercenter. Again, no eggs, and no random this or random that which appeared on my list. However, having these random things actually on my list encouraged me to ask associates (mid-restock) for directions. Every single one of the people I interacted with (and they were in clusters, so speaking with one meant interacting with at least three) was in high spirits. Maybe they were enjoying the adventure of tidal waves of customers, or maybe they just had humor for the situation. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they were amiable, happy to help, and even a little chatty.
As I was returning from the adventure, my brother called me – the one most likely of us all to come down with any rampant virus because he works in a hospital – just to check in. He’s doing well, and he even mentioned that he picked up enough meats to entertain himself with his smoker should he need to quarantine-in-place. (Plus, we talked about some tentative good news sitting just on the horizon.) Because he’s the most at risk and he’s doing well, I feel confident in saying the fam is doing well.
What a way to top off a day where I got a fairly intense, multi-day project done . I got it done, and I got it done well. (And I’m exceptionally happy that I didn’t give in to my grouchiness at technical problems and send off the product without proofreading it.) Perhaps a little overly-thoroughly, truth be told, but the secondary and tertiary arguments are the ones that stuck out the most, so they made it to paper first.
And.
And.
I’m still flying a teensy bit high off of the praise I received yesterday. The client, known to be quite picky and to change little things here and there in a work product, had nothing to add, delete, or alter before my document was submitted. The managing partner said they “really liked it,” and the paralegal pointed out how impressive a recommendation that is from that particular inside counsel. Yeah, definitely feeling like singing in the rain today.
So today was a pretty awesome day. We still have some snow, but it’s melting; the store wasn’t incredibly crowded; the personnel in the stores were fabulous; and I stayed on track with what I planned to get done despite myself and some technical glitches. Overall, I feel like whistling.
With this kind of luck, tomorrow there may even be eggs in store. 😮
It has been pretty nutty lately, hasn’t it?
Everywhere you look, every time you talk to friends, every time you run some errands or even just go out for a walk, there is clearly something different. It seems the atmosphere itself has changed as a result of the pandemic. It’s strange. For better or for worse, it certainly is strange.
Personally, I feel like I’m benefiting from this social distancing and scare-your-neighbors-to-stay-indoors thing. Sure, meeting new people is super awkward now (“Hi! Nice-to-meet-you handshake-from-six-feet-away. #NoTouching”), but I don’t have to take my walks late at night to get the sidewalk almost entirely to myself despite where I go. (I love night walks, but it’s nice to see some sunlight every once in a while.)
The pandemic has also made the character of people clear, giving me an opportunity to reflect not only on how others are responding to the situation, but also to how I am responding to it. Have you looked at how you are reacting to the COVID-19 threat? How are you changing your behavior as a result of the novel coronavirus, social distancing, and all of the new rules and expectations that entails?
I live with an elderly woman, so I bought a pump bottle hand sanitizer for the house and put up a sign asking people to please use it. I also bought some canned goods, but that was more as a result of there not being any eggs (!!!) than that I’m actually concerned about an extended quarantine. Additionally, and much to my chagrin, I’m working from home; I suppose it saves on gas, but I’m one of those people who relies on a separate office spade to separate work from the rest of the day. (Now I’m going to bed and waking up thinking about how to phrase something in an office action response; I don’t believe that’s considered healthy.)
These things are pretty typical, but they certainly don’t characterize my response. My response has been so multi-faceted that I’m dedicating a separate post to it. The gist of it, basically, is that I’m Catholic and I’m American; don’t you dare tell me what I can and cannot do.
Well, if you’re tuned in to just about anything – social media, the news, or just have ventured to the store recently yourself – you’ve probably noticed some of the shelves seem pretty bare. There’s nothing wrong with the supply chain; the vast majority of the supplies the stores are out of will be replenished in a week or two. Regardless some people are buying absurd amounts of stuff.
One of the biggest concerns is toilet paper. Luckily, I bought a relatively large thing of it a few weeks before the fears crept near us, so I still have a couple of weeks worth of the stuff, but there are people who are going pretty crazy over toilet paper. I’m talking Black Friday Tickle-Me-Elmo crazy: attacking people, launching oneself at restocking pallets, the works. That’s nuts, people. And if you’re one of the people ripping products out of a store associate’s hands, you should seriously visit a psychiatrist. Seriously.
And don’t get me started about the breathing face masks. Masks are used to prevent someone from giving away a contagion, but it doesn’t prevent you from catching one. Realistically, because COVID-19 is spread by the virus entering the body through holes in the face (mouth, ears, nose, pores… take your pick), and because someone wearing a mask is more likely to touch their face than someone who isn’t (because they have an uncomfortable mask to adjust), wearing a mask makes it more likely that someone is going to contract the virus. Simply put, unless you’re sick, don’t wear a mask.
But viciously hoarding toilet paper and other products isn’t the only reaction.
Amidst all the chaos, there is a lot of helping going on. People are reaching out to friends and neighbors in need. People are also reaching out to strangers in need.
Think Freecycle is where all the peace-loving hippies hang out? Okay, then explain the same thing happening on Craigslist:
Maybe it’s just those Concordians (Concordites?). That must be it, right?
Buffalo, New York has the same postings. And I’m willing to bet that most cities have similar postings all across the United States. Why would I be willing to make that bet?
Because the American spirit is alive. We are a loving, giving people.
Oh, and companies are getting involved, too.
What an amazing time to be alive.
For some of us, the positive responses effectively smack us in the face. Maybe people close to you are the ones offering free stuff or reaching out via phone to check on friends. (The guidelines are to stay physically separated, but not to isolate yourself.) Maybe you’re the one reaching out to those you love or the unattended in your community. Maybe you snatched that bundle of toilet paper out of the associate’s hands because you promised to fetch one for Tiny Tim.
There is so much going on right now. Most of what’s covered in the news is dramatic because the drama is what keeps everyone glued to their newsfeeds. Ignore the drama. Find the grace. There are wonderful acts of kindness everywhere and even in the most trying of times. In fact, in the most trying of times, there are often more acts of kindness because this is when we realize that our neighbors need us to be kind!
What marvelous things are you noticing? We face this virus together, even though we’re physically separated. How are you helping your community to grow?
“Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brethren! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
– Jesus speaking in Matthew 12:48-49
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was Thy gracious will.
– Jesus speaking in Matthew 11:25-26
I had one of those days today, so I’m going to share.
I was up late last night (writing on here to maintain my perfect record of posts), and, coupled with my trying to fit everything in over the past couple of weeks, the result was my ambling out of bed about an hour and a half later than normal. That meant that, after my shower, I only had about an hour to get the necessary reviews done before my 0900 deadline. And I was really hoping to start work on something else early today, too. The back-of-the-hand calculation made me wince as I stumbled toward the bathroom.
I clean myself up, come back, and boot up my computer as I finish getting ready for the day. Pull on this, log in there, pull on that, open up a browser, brush my hair, load a set of tabs, open up the curtain to let in some natural light, check the appropriate tab for the number of cases I have to do before the deadline and it’s… zero.
Maybe I should have pinched myself.
There was work for me to do, certainly, but there were no cases that had to be done this morning. I went through the short list of those that had popped up, checked on something, and switched tasks at 0832.
I grabbed breakfast (yogurt and fruit which was grab-and-go ready this morning) and started on the thing I had hoped I’d get done yesterday (*shakes fist at teh interwebs*) because of an impending external deadline. I wanted to get it done quickly, but I needed to get it done thoroughly and well, both because a client’s interests rely on it and because, as my first project for this group, it was imperative I make a good impression. (Especially given that this particular tech is right in my wheelhouse, doing well was critical.) Moreover, it was my first time getting my hands on working one of these tasks in quite a while – so not only was the heat on, but my hands felt like they were caked in mostly-dried mud as they went to tune an antique clockpiece.
Diving in, I skimmed my (handwritten) notes from yesterday, then flipped through the document I was writing for submission. Last night, I was a mixture of excited and frustrated: it was fun enough that I didn’t notice the time flying by, but there were several times when I just couldn’t grasp what the disclosure was saying. What does that mean? … Why is this here? … Is that supposed to be… ?
This morning, everything just clicked. Everything I was looking at fell into place: the invention, the prior art, the arguments that I knew I wanted to make but couldn’t put my finger on the appropriate wording… Everything. I thought I’d be working on it through the mid-afternoon; even with several interruptions, I finished before noon.
I also expected the partner would have a number of corrections for me. I’m a little rusty, I’m a little new, I’m a little a lot of things. And I’m working from home because of the pandemic, which also works against me and my focus. One of the reasons I wanted to submit the document to him early was so he would have plenty of time to look over it and make the necessary corrections. That’s what I’m used to, that’s what I’ve been told and taught to expect; that’s what I expected. And then…
“I reviewed the draft, and excellent work on it. Two minor style things…”
Excellent work. Minor style changes only.
… Am I dreaming?
I had to re-read the email. I work hard and well and thoroughly, but that doesn’t mean I’m used to receiving praise (let alone high praise) for the product. I got it done on time (ahead of schedule) and to the point where if it needed to be filed immediately, it could have been. Oh my goodness. I was thrilled. I still am thrilled. I was so excited that I had to step away for a little while to cool my jets because my head couldn’t handle all of the excitement at the same time as processing the information about another invention.
While I was metaphorically paused, I performed some administrative tasks, like plunking through the time tracking system. When I tallied my time on the project, it came out to less than three business days. And that was with me struggling with it. The first day I felt as though I didn’t know what I was doing because, the way my brain initially processed the description, it all seemed entirely foreign to me. I plowed through it because of the impending deadline, but it was certainly slow progress the first day, much slower than it had any right to be. Despite that, and some time wasted on trying to argue something that I recognized this morning was weak at best and wouldn’t matter at most, and I still came in under three days of work time. That’s super close to the well-oiled machine goal!
As if I needed anything else to top off my day, I clicked into my inbox after clock out (which was oddly quite late because I was so absorbed in my work) to find an email from a reference who’d had a “nice chat” with someone on my behalf and he just wanted to touch base and wish me well.
Sidenote: I owe him a really nice thank-you card.
So, okay, you may be thinking, “A solid day, but you were trapped inside.”
Today, I was barely tempted to go outside. Yes, I would have loved to have made time for a walk, and it looked like pretty decent weather, but for anyone watching my posting time, this is going to go up about 2300 hours, and I still have a few things I want to get done before bed. The mere fact that I wasn’t staring out my window longingly, wanting to escape from the task at hand, is a huge sign of great things. Everybody has those moments – you hit a stumbling block, or there’s a more difficult obstacle than you really wanted to face blocking your path – but today those were few and far between for me.
Tomorrow, I’m getting my tuchus outside. It’ll be gorgeous. I’ll get done what I need to in the morning, go for a walk, go visit a friend, maybe go for another walk, and figure out this Mass-without-church thing. (All public Masses in my area have been shut down by the bishop; I needed a day like today after receiving that news this week.)
This week has been exhausting in a fantastic way; I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring.
How about you? Are you sheltering in place this week? If so, how are you handling it? If not, what have you been better able to do with fewer crowds? What has been the best thing about your week this week, and what are you most looking forward to in the near (or distant) future?