NO MASKS AT SCHOOL!

Exhausted. Cautious. Joyful. Finally.

I just dropped off my little guys, who cautiously took off their masks and walked into school, their own beautiful faces finally exposed. My first grader had literally never walked into the building without wearing a mask.

As I watched him walk in, a few moments after his older sister, a bit hesitant, his big backpack bobbing, I could hear all the kids in the lobby screaming and celebrating.

I had tears in my eyes watching the scene from the sidewalk.

Other kids were posing in front mask-free, their parents snapping photos. Fellow moms and dads called out to each other, jubilant: “No masks!!”

It has been such a long road parenting through this pandemic for the past two years. I am exhausted on so many levels, especially given the fresh wounds of losing Kyle’s mom and grandmother to Covid. The horror of watching it all unfold remotely in the summer of 2020 while his mom, Susan, was in the hospital for six weeks before passing away, still plagues me. Grief omnipresent in our home.

All of it bubbled up as the kids pulled off their masks today and stuffed them in their backpacks.

I am exhausted. Grateful. Joyous. Sad. Hopeful. Cautious.

Here. In the moment. Celebrating this monumental victory.

There’s blue sky. Sunshine.

Smiles. Tears. All of it. In it. No masks in school!! Hallelujah.

Trying to move on. One cautious step at a time. Spent.