If you wanted to, you could have at a moment’s notice, a hundred stories of tragically dead children, horrible accidents, and terrible abuses. It is easy to understand why we get overloaded and indifferent.

Instead of sitting on the sidelines, sadly watching the people around me struggle, I get to suit up and help out. I get to practice compassion.

If I have something in my life that I consider natural, normal, of course I am able to do that, then I cannot give away someone else’s right to that thing.

A lot feels lost right now and I am taking it as an article of faith that there will be renewal after all this.

If you’re at home like me, there is no reason for us not to listen to our bodies right now.

I don’t think we can truly value this time until we acknowledge that it comes at a cost.

Until it’s figured out, we’ll make do, even if we feel completely incompetent and unprepared.

I realized that the routine that our family used to have wasn’t just to accommodate the needs of work and school. It helped us organize our days and eased transitions with the kids.

In the last decade, I have gained enough wisdom to know that there are some things that intensity and will aren’t going to make better. So I’ve learned to meditate.

I’m forcing my kids to go back in time with me, to when a pack of cards and a tattered copy of Hoyle’s card game rulebook were enough for an afternoon’s entertainment.

But our life is the way it is for the foreseeable future and I’m trying to connect to this new pace.

It’s ok to stop being serious and stop being productive. Our brains, in normal life, have all sorts of transition times.

I have to admit how hard this has been just so I can start tapping into the small things that I’m not restricted from doing.

Helping each other keeps us connected. Keeping connected gives us hope. And hope is what will carry us through hard times.

We forget how much of our normal lives involved movement.

One year I learned how to sew some skirts, another I learned to knit, others I baked or drew or planted. It gave me a chance to look at my creation and feel proud of that one little thing.

Remember that stories are how humans cope with complicated emotions and concepts. We bring them to life and then turn them over and over in our minds.

Not everyone wants to reach out when facing all of this stress but it’s not the worst idea to pick up the phone and give someone a call.