Social Distancing Diaries: Day 61

Dear Diary

Another college student has finished her semester! I cannot believe that Ellen will begin her third year of college in the fall. Where does the time go??

Someone will need to relearn how to dress once she gets out of quarantine.

Enjoying the beautiful day!

Early tomorrow morning Tom and twins will drive to Massachusetts to bring home Ellen’s belongings which are still in her dorm room. It’s a trip that takes a little forethought. Hopefully they’ll be able to find restrooms when they need them and things like that! They are driving up and back in one day to avoid having to stay overnight somewhere. But with 3 drivers they should be fine. Since neither Hayley nor Ellen had driven our Highlander yet and that’s what they’ll be driving tomorrow (we bought it in Jan.) they both took a turn driving for errands today. That led to the experience of them needing to wear masks in public for the first time. Lily came along with Ellen and I so she ventured into a store for the first time since March 13 too. We’ve been careful to keep the kids out of public since they had no need to be there. 

Today when I was going through credit card receipts, I came across a bunch of purchases I made when Ellen and I enjoyed a day of shopping on March 9 when she was home on spring break. It was surreal to think about how unaware we were then of how drastically life would change in only a few days. I really long for that day in the future when we will have the luxury of hindsight—kind of like the Monday after the Superbowl when all the speculation seems like such a waste of time. Not that I think that the research and analysis that’s being done is a waste of time! That’s not what I mean. I only mean that there’s a discomfort in living in the “not yet.”

Biking around the church parking lot near our house.

That reminds me of the sermon series that Pastor Adam has been presenting: The Point in Your Disappointment. It’s been excellent. He’s been using the example of Habakuk and in his sermon on 4/26 about how to complain, one of the points is that we should complain with expectant hope. There’s an element of faith in the power and goodness of God that we demonstrate when we are frustrated by the events of the world yet we agree to wait upon what God will do. In Habakuk’s situation life was going to get far worse before it got better. And the “better” that would come wasn’t going to look anything like what Habakuk was asking God for. To me it brings home the necessity of living day by day. As I said, I long for the luxury of hindsight. And I know it will come one day. But today, all I can do is to live faithfully this day. This moment. Lord, give me the grace to do just that!