Spring Break, March 2020
My family and I spent a good hour and a half packing up the truck for our Spring Break trip to Park City, UT. I had reserved the Air BnB months prior, and we had planned our activities around days full of skiing and nights talking around a fire or in a hot tub. We finally headed out before just before noon, all seven of us packed in with ski gear and duffel bags, snacks and food for our stay.
The kids were into the bag of chocolate chip cookies within an hour and we were cruising down I-70 headed west. It started snowing. I started scrolling through the news. Seeing something about a potential lock down (what is this?) I opened up the article and read about Gov. Polis’ intent to possibly close down the state. (WHAT?!?)…digging a little deeper into the related stories I discovered more information and thoughts various officials had about this new sickness spreading everywhere. I mean, we had heard a little bit about people getting sick and there was that news from China, but come on, a shut down? I guess we were just a bit clueless back then.
It continued to snow harder, and the road ahead had the barrier gate down…closed. Maybe it was a sign? We pulled over and had a consulting session. If we went ahead (through a rising snow storm) to Salt Lake City and, if what my reading indicated, got stuck somewhere due to this possible lock down (I mean, it wouldn’t be for that long, would it?) then what would we do about school next week?
Side bar here. I am pretty sure no one in society would have expected that we would literally shut down EVERYTHING for months let alone years. I think we were all guilty of living in our little insular worlds minding our own business and doing life our own way. So we were not prepared to even project what our realities would look like due to this new COVID-thing. It was unheard of and we had no frame of reference for what was happening and how the world would change.
So, decision making time.Sitting on the side of the road in a blizzard, with five kids in the car excited for a ski trip to a new place, what should we do? We decided to turn around. GROANS x 5. As we took the frontage road to turn back home, I am not kidding, the snow stopped and the sun came out like our decision was being blessed. Drove home with quiet, resigned kids as I keep reading news of what was happening around the country, and then we all unpacked the car. Total Bummer.
Annnnnnd, cue lock down.
Instead of going skiing for a week, I organized a thorough house cleaning operation! Deep clean, top to bottom, all hands on deck. We interspersed this challenging endeavor with bouts of Dutch Blitz, face masks (not the cloth kind but the goopy kind) and movies, all while learning bits and pieces of what are new realities were going to be.
Remote learning….????
Masks everywhere. Where can we get these? How can we make them?
“Essential services”.
Pick up groceries ( I actually kind of liked that one)…
Home gym…and lots of walks…
And the list of things new, and those removed from our daily life, goes on. In retrospect, I can honestly say there were some very positive changes from that time. Many in the world would agree. We certainly grew together better as a family, and learned how to relax and rest and just BE.
This was a pivotal time in the formation of our now-blended family. When we set out on this trip, my now-husband and I had been together about 18 months. The kids liked each other (his 4, my 1 left at home) but this time of isolation and separation from the rest of the world built bonds of strength and meaning from a “we’re all in this together” kind of mentality. Can’t get away from it, or from each other. We officially blended the families together this past summer, and it is a beautiful thing to attribute to a terrible time in our world.
I miss the slower pace; it feels like we are pretty much back to the pre-pandemic “normal” rat race. But I certainly have taken from that time the ability to take a break, say no, and just be in solitude and peace without guilt. We can take joy in being alive, being in a time in history where we have tools and resources to be able to go back to life with less fear and anxiety, and the communal spirit to rebuild, repair and rejoice in a new way of life.