Back on Track

For her 4^th birthday, my granddaughter was given a two-wheel bicycle with training wheels. In the pitch of emotion and excitement on her birthday, her attempts to ride the bike did not meet her expectations and her spirit exploded in an outburst of emotion. The day ended in tears and exhaustion.

A couple of days later, after some rest and with her mind hard at work to figure this all out, she got back on the bike and sailed off on the sidewalk loop in front of their house. In her confidence and joy she declared, “I’m back on track!”

Children often show me fundamental truths in the clearest way. These last two-plus years of Covid have generated powerful emotions in me, and I am coming to notice, more and more, how many ways I have shut down – emotionally, relationally, physically, spiritually. While on the outside I have kept going and found ways to accommodate the ups and downs, the limitations, the plans made and canceled, I am discovering the ways I have distanced my mind from my heart.

There is little about the Covid experience that has met my expectations or even hopes; and Covid is still with us. While I have shed some tears here and there, my well-being might have been better served by a momentous explosion in an outburst of emotion – anger, sadness, emptiness, fear, loss, frustration.

Thanks to the wisdom of my granddaughter, I’m going to focus on rest and some time to reflect on my Covid experience. I might even find myself exploding in emotion. Because what I want and need and hope for . . . is to confidently and joyfully declare, “I’m back on track!”