I haven’t actually written this down anywhere, so you will officially be the first one to read the following paragraphs!
Instead of overloading you with even more educational material (on top of this month’s devotional, snack article, and workout program), I thought it might be neat to share a bit about my own story during the past couple months with you. This will hopefully give you a little insight into your Coach’s life, but the bigger picture is that this will hopefully give you encouragement to write out your own story in case you or your family are dealing with particularly difficult situations right now.
(It’s been a while since I’ve written any sort of blog post, so I’m just going to go for it here!)
In a nutshell, our COVID-19 story has been pretty unremarkable and not too different from life a few years or even months ago. Lots of new and intensified emotions at times, but our overall lifestyle has largely been unaffected.
I suppose that wasn’t a super engaging intro for our story because now you’re wondering why it’s even worth reading if it was truly so unremarkable. That’s a great point haha! But I do think that when it comes to real life, true stories, they are worth telling and writing down even if they don’t have a life-threatening conflict or amazing underdog comeback.
Anyway, this is a pretty normal story considering all the new norms around us. My wife and I both run our own online businesses (she’s an illustrator!), so we would normally be at home for the most part anyway regardless of quarantine precautions. Our baby girl would normally be at home with us anyway, so we didn’t have to adjust to daycare closing or anything like that. All things considered, life changed fairly little for us on a day to day basis.
The major change that we had to adjust to was not seeing friends or family – you may feel the same way! Our social calendar always included church and family time on Sundays, Bible study later in the week, and random hangouts throughout. I’m not sure if I’m an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert, but regardless, I was missing seeing everyone out and about. My wife is definitely an extrovert and a social butterfly, so the beginning of this whole experience has been a bit of a challenge for her.
It felt really odd not going to church on Sundays for the first few weeks. It still feels kind of weird, but we’ve largely adjusted to watching services online, and have recently been meeting up with some friends to do so. It just feels good to be in physical community with one another!
I work as a barista at a coffee shop a few days a week, and seeing the various social transitions over the past couple months has been really fascinating. We’ve been open the entire time in one capacity or another, which we’ve been incredibly fortunate to do. Hearing the feedback from all of our customers and their endless thanks for being open has been encouraging to our entire team, so that’s been a fun social outlet for sure. Now that we have our indoor seating set up again, it feels like we are one step closer to overcoming this wild situation. Again, it just feels good to be in physical community with one another. We were meant for community.
As small business owners, we were just as concerned and uncertain as everyone else. Amanda and I followed the small business trend of giving out even more free content, help, and services than ever before in order to help keep up encouragement and morale. We witnessed dozens of customers and fans excitedly take us up on our offers and share their own stories with us. During this time, we saw two big trends that fit our businesses well: home workouts, and DIY projects. We continued to offer our paid services, but this was really the time to help and support the community, so we worked to provide resources and customer service to help make these things possible. Amanda made downloadable prints for arts and crafts for kids, and I continued to create home workout videos, podcasts, and downloads.
Now that we’re past the initial shock and paralysis of this pandemic, we’ve each seen a rise in people who are looking to invest in their creative sides and their physical health. Our clientele has been so gracious and so excited through all of this, and we are incredibly grateful and excited for their (your!) support. I couldn’t do all of this without you! Thank you, thank you!
As Believers, we continually strive to bring it all back to Jesus. Even in the midst of the chaos and the loss, He has a plan through all of this. Better still, His plan is based on bringing us closer to Him, which ultimately points to our best interest. We have other believing friends on either end of the Coronavirus fear spectrum: some who are afraid for the health, jobs, and social lives, and some who are unaffected and almost apathetic toward everything going on. The goal at any point on that spectrum is to daily commit to trusting that God is with us and for us. This ought to lead us on a path of wisdom (check out this month’s devotional on wisdom!) that extends beyond what we can know and see ourselves. Our family has worked to stay obey the law, stay safe and respectful, and to exercise our freedom in Christ as well. What a journey it’s been – again, I’m sure you can relate!
All of this brings us to today. Each day brings new opportunities and challenges, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s been great hearing so many stories from so many of you – in fact, I’d love to hear a bit about your Coronavirus/quarantine/social distancing experience if you’d be willing to share your thoughts! You can use the comment section below to share how you’ve handled the past couple months, how it’s affected your physical and spiritual fitness, and how you plan on growing forward from here. One of the most powerful feelings going around right now is loneliness, and one of the most powerful tools we have to combat loneliness is communication with one another. If not here, make sure you share stories between your friends and family members as move from one day to the next. You’re in good hands, my friend – let’s keep walking forward in that truth.