You Don't Know What You Got

I grew up a child of the 80's Hair Bands... I was a BIG fan of the band Cinderella - and I am proud to say that I still am... Their song, "You Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone" is so appropriate today.

I am staying positive and thinking about some of the good things that are coming from this Pandemic. One of the good things about this isolation is it's really kind of showing me a lot of the things that I take for granted. Yesterday as I was driving home, I got into our neighborhood. There's people out walking and that's great to see. I love that. You don't normally see families walking together, walking the dogs together as a big family unit. As I came around the corner, I saw Georgia's best friend and her and her sister just sitting in the driveway talking and smiling. They have such beautiful smiles and I felt compelled to stop.

I'd never do that in "normal" times, but these are not normal times. So I stopped and rolled the window down. I said, "Hi ladies - I hope you girls are staying healthy and happy. You look happy and I miss your faces and I miss your voices."

Georgia and Alexa are inseparable. We only live a couple houses apart, so they are together a lot! And in that moment, I realized that I miss hearing them laugh and giggle and scream in joy. Sometimes I'm trying to work from home and they're screaming and I can get a little frustrated, but right now I miss that. I might be in the middle of a conference call when they come in and they need to involve me in one of their little challenges. They created some snack out of random, horrible ingredients that they gave to each other. They want me to decide which one it tastes better.

They don't understand that I'm working; they're just in their world doing their fun thing. That could be a little bit annoying at times, but right now, not so much - - I miss it. I wish Alexa could come over and make something nasty and interrupt me from my work. I wish I could hear them giggling and laughing with each other. I wish they could get together for one of their backyard picnics and play board games together but they can't. Right now they have to settle to play via Skype or Facetime. I give the kids a ton of credit, they are handling this so well. I am certainly impressed, but it is just not the same. And so you don't know what you got till it's gone.

I am grateful for the fact that we have people, the young children in our house who scream and yell and play and laugh and giggle and do funny, silly, stupid things. And, honestly I'm looking forward to when this gets lifted and my house is filled with those sounds again, I'll probably still get a little annoyed from time to time cause that's who I am. But I hope that I'm strong enough to remember how much I missed it. And then just sit back and take a moment in the present and laugh at it. Suck it all in and appreciate it, because it is not forever and can be taken away without notice. I appreciate what we have. I want you to appreciate what you have. Enjoy and appreciate who you have, what you have - while you have it. This too shall pass and I look forward to being interrupted by the most resilient, beautiful and amazing 10 year old girls ever!

I hope that you have a super day. I hope that you find an awful lot to be grateful for, even if it's something that you're missing. Stay well, stay safe, stay healthy.

Peace and Love -