Every quarantine morning feels like the weekend. 

It’s like the world is sleeping in. But it’s a weekday.  My rocking chair creaks against the tile floor on my front porch. The steady stream of cars that used to race up and down our road, short-cutting their way to the major thoroughfares to town, are few and far between. It’s quiet, except for the birds who are singing their happy little hearts out. 

The earth is seemingly at rest.  It is still, peaceful, serene.  There is not even a breeze.

My mind wanders, drinking in the beauty of it.  And in the pause, I find a momentary joy in all of my world that is good, right here, in the gift of quarantine rest.

And yet, there is a sadness underlying this serenity. The stark absence of humanity-in-motion is telling. It’s a blaring reminder of so many people who’ve lost jobs and are struggling to pay rent, buy groceries, take care of their families, or are separated from their loved ones. And it’s telling the story of the courageous ones caring for others, treating the sick, comforting the dying.  

My momentary lightness of being gives way to the heaviness of human quarantine reality. Every day these feelings rise and fall. It’s Iike trying to find balance on a teeter-totter of emotions holding both joy and sadness, peace and anxiety, hope and grief.   I tilt between stillness and restlessness, boredom and activity, creativity and the mundane, caution and freedom, normal and new normal.  I know that tipping too far in the wrong direction can send me straight to the ground, from where it will be hard to get back up. 

Hard maybe, but not impossible. 

Because I have a Holy “plumb line” to help me recalibrate my heart and mind. I am eternally connected to the One who gives me life and breath and loves me without condition.

His mercies are new and available every morning – every moment.

His spirit lives in me.  His words. His strength.  His power. His wings.  His comfort.  His love. 

So when I find myself on the downward end of the see-saw, I will plant my feet and push up. Inhale hope and exhale gratitude. Inhale life and exhale possibility.  Inhale love and exhale compassion.  Inhale mercy and exhale grace.  

Inhale and push up.