COVID-19: Week One

As we reach the end of our first week being out of school, I first want to thank all of you for your efforts!

I have been buoyed by the overwhelming positive emails I’ve received from parents about how efficiently and effectively we set up distance learning. We’re all on a learning curve and we will continue to hone and enhance, but please know your efforts and energy this week were visible and appreciated!

For many of our families, we are the rock of stability upon which they rely and trust. As educators, we are caregivers and our depth of empathy and compassion can seem bottomless. Except it’s not. We also need to care for ourselves—our physical, emotional, and social well-being.

I read this article yesterday and its perspective resonated for me: it helped me take a deep breath, reflect of what I am still thankful for, and not feel guilty about not being able to support everybody, all the time, in every situation.

We all have our school responsibilities and need to help our students and their parents through this unique and un-nerving time--and we will get through it! But not at the expense of neglecting to tend to ourselves. 

A few sentences from the end of the article had particular impacted me:

“Often people complain about the ordinary until they no longer have it. Then, when it’s disrupted, they desperately want it back—but don’t realize that what they took for granted is still right there in front of them…In being confined to our homes as much as possible, whether alone or together, we have an opportunity to embrace the ordinary—to play board games, cook meals, watch entire TV seasons, read books, take walks, do puzzles, catch up with people we ‘meant to call’ weeks or months ago and make one another laugh—precisely because our busy routines have been disrupted…All of this ordinariness connects us at a time when we need connection the most.”

Thank you again for this week, and take care of yourself as you care for others in your family, at Trinity, and wherever you help others!

Just as a respite from all the seriousness, I heard this lame joke yesterday (and I love lame jokes!):

Past, present, and future walked into a bar.

It was tense!

Joe