We have been practicing our “social distancing” for awhile. We are getting pretty good at it actually. Recently my family and I took a walk over to the grocery store for some essentials. We walked through the park which had a number of people there. Clustered in small groups of 2-3, were individuals with their dogs, others out for some exercise, and others just enjoying the sunshine and outdoors. A couple of days before it had rained pretty hard. The grass was green, vibrantly so, and the flowers were pushing open from their blossoms exposing their beauty. Their colors, vibrant as well, would have filled a painter’s palette. It began to dawn on me that we were just past the first day of Spring and the season was changing. The evidence was everywhere around me. At the grocery store, people were quietly waiting in line, dutifully six-feet apart. People exited the store through a door on the other side of the building. Those of us waiting to go in, moved forward in line, equal to the number that left. It was orderly, calm, and patient.

It has been a season of chaos. We’ve never had to wait in line outside of the grocery store. Going to work for many of us is out of the question. The closing of schools seems to have set the children on a perpetual break. And, as evidence shows, seasons change.

We are continuing to figure out how to care for our kids. We are getting accustomed to new ways to get work accomplished. The lines at the stores are not quite so long and our patience is expanding. At least we are not as short tempered as we were very early on. It is not easy and it’s not immediate, but it is changing. I realized that the disruption brought by the coronavirus was kin to a season. We are finding new rhythms for daily life. Day by day we are finding our way through.