I know even in the midst of the strictest lockdown measures there are a lot of people who must continue to go to work outside their homes—particularly those serving in healthcare. But many others, like myself, have been spending a lot more time at home and away from everyone else lately.
I am blessed to be comfortably “retired” and not have to worry about earning a paycheck or stress over paying bills. I have been blessed to get out of the house most days and go walking and bicycling, exercising both my body and mind as I listen to podcasts, brainstorm, and dictate voice-to-text messages and notes. I am blessed to have a beautiful, comfortable home I share with my wife, in a lovely, safe neighborhood. I know I am blessed, and daily I count those blessings! But I also know that if I were to glance through someone else’s window, I wouldn’t see the same view.
Yes, I’m sure through many windows I would see others like myself—safe, warm, well-fed, and blessed to not be too worried about personal finances or health risks. But through other windows I would see a lot of different realities:
- Families who worry about their loved one who must continue to go to work every day in order to do their own small part to keep the world running in the midst of this crisis.
- Energetic self-starters who pretty seamlessly transitioned to working exclusively from home, negotiating a full daily schedule of conference calls, emails, and online collaboration with barely a hitch.
- Working parents who are still trying to figure out how to balance overseeing their kids’ virtual education with their own virtual work responsibilities, while also juggling grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, and a host of other mundane necessities that have suddenly become much more intense with the whole family at home 24/7.
- Dedicated teachers who are missing their students and doing their best to stay connected and make the most of their virtual classrooms, while also enjoying the opportunity to snuggle their dogs and watch a lot more Netflix than usual.
- Devastated mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who just lost someone to this disease that has rocked the world and has now irreversibly changed their own world.
- Scores of hard-working folks who are suddenly and indefinitely without work and without pay, trying to decide which bills to not pay, which groceries to do without, and not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.
- Single individuals who feel alone and isolated no matter how many hours they spend connected online, the weight of their anxiety getting heavier and the depth of their depression getting deeper every day.
- Broken families and hurting individuals who feel trapped in substance abuse or physical abuse, cut off from support or escape and who are just trying to survive to see another day.
Through every window there is a different view. For each and every one of us, this new normal of social distancing and staying home looks different. Don’t forget to “look through another window” and take a moment to think and feel what other people might be going through. As I’ve heard some people put it, we might all be in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat.
