Pause. Again.

 Governments are urging people to press pause again as the pandemic shows little sign of slowing.

There have been many years when I wished I could hibernate until, say, April, after all the spring break up nastiness is over.  This year the urge is even greater!

(I'd also love to lose some of the weight I've gained over the year, but that's something else entirely...)

As we move further into 2021, the plans I set in motion the end of last year are beginning to come to fruition.  The Sunday Seminar Series, a mentoring group, continuing to weave down my stash, work at re-organizing my studio space.  

For me the biggest thing is that I do not get 'stuck' in all the disappointments, but to move forward.  Somewhere.  Some thought process that takes me out of myself.

This morning I read about an analogy that said we need to think of life as a trip in a sailboat - there will be plenty of tacking instead of straight forward progress.  Plenty of re-calculating, checking the charts, testing the currents, the wind, making slight or major adjustments as things change.  Because things will surely change.

That example felt so 'right' to me.

Life is not a straight line progression from birth to death.  There is room for serendipity.  Detours.  Pauses to reflect.  Course changes.

So we press pause.  Again.  Try to pause the growth of a highly infectious virus.  No, things are not ideal right now.  Far from it.  But this is where we are, and we need to be pragmatic and deal with reality, not focus on our hopes and dreams that need to be put on hold.

While events are being cancelled, are there other ways we can move forward?  Can we connect on a different level?  Find new books?  Talk to friends over the internet instead of in person?

Personally I've offered my Zoom account to the local stitch group once a month.  And a friend who lives elsewhere and I have found that while a Zoom visit isn't exactly the same an in person, it's a good substitute.  I routinely message with other friends.

So my pragmatic self reassures me that this is the right thing to do right now.  Pause is just that - a pause.  

I saw somewhere a quote (and I paraphrase), music is the pause between the notes.

Let's make beautiful music with lovely pauses.