Unanticipated challenges

This past month I caught COVID, likely in some travels. I did everything I could to protect myself according to the CDC. I guess it was meant to be.

Upon returning from a trip, I felt exhausted but thought it may have been the travel itself. Later the following evening symptoms started to show and a few days thereafter a positive test. Of course, quickly isolating in our home did not mitigate my wife from catching it (too late), who tested positive a few days after me. Although my symptoms were rough (I completely appreciate this is a relative term) for about 3 days, by the time my wife was starting to experience hers I was on my way to feeling better, a blessing as we have a toddler to tend to!

We both wanted to follow the CDC guidelines while also hoping to spare our daughter from the virus. This meant isolation in our home for the defined period of time but also N95 masking for us and toddler masking for our daughter, all while keeping our distance. Our little one was used to masking from preschool but the distancing (as able) was an adjustment ("Why do I have to eat at the table by myself Dad?"). A week later when hope was on the horizon and we could look forward to attending family events leading up to 4th of July, our daughter tested positive. This crushed our spirits. Fortunately she experienced symptoms for only a day in half and thereafter the primary challenge was patiently awaiting the isolation period. Unfortunately, this also meant we would not be attending those family events collectively. Did I mention Father’s Day and my birthday were also during this COVID time period? Again, all relative.

As I write this article our daughter is able to be out in the world and we are very grateful that although not enjoyable, we are now healthy and know things could have been, and have been for others, much worse. But these 2.5 weeks challenged me more than I would have anticipated. Here are some lessons learned I was reminded of:

1. Reflection, especially in times of adversity, provides teachable moments – reflecting on what was in my control, and what was not, helped me stay grounded. I also found reflection led to gratitude for the positives of the situation and recognition of how much worse it could be. Both behaviors were critical to my mental health.
2. Human interaction fuels the soul – although able to interact with my wife and daughter, how much do I take for granted those spontaneous or planned interactions with others. Even earlier in the pandemic when things were restricted, we were still fortunate to have “bubbles” of people for interaction. Being in person in community with others is part of what “fills my bucket”. ?
3. Support of others is priceless – we were very blessed to have family and friends reach out with their prayers, offer to bring us anything we needed (food, supplies), and a few proactively dropped off care packages for our little one. All of us deserve these types of people in our lives and should aspire to be these people to others.

Though I share all of this vulnerably, I want to reiterate that I know this specific experience of adversity likely pales in comparison to what others in this world may have been facing over the same few weeks. ?With that being said, at any given time we all have challenging situations we are going through, so if any of these lessons learned aid you in your journey then this vulnerability was well worth it.

Stay safe, well, and may you have hope in any situation you face.?