Recaffeinated Mondays: Seize the Days

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV

Most of us are now in week three of social distancing, and it’s not getting any easier.

Sure, I’ve seen the memes that our parents and grandparents were called off to fight a war and we’ve been asked to sit on the couch and watch Netflix. It sounds like a dream opportunity right? Until, it isn’t.

Long-time readers will know that I often write here about not being able to get to the list of projects to which I have committed. I have said on more than one occasion that my busy schedule was of my own doing. I chose to put those commitments on the calendar. So, any resulting stress was of my own making.

Then, within a matter of days, all of the extra stuff was taken away.

We’ve gone from burning the candles at both ends to not wanting to burn them at all because we don’t know how long they’ll be in stock at Walmart.

Like you, I’m not happy with where we are.

This season of inconvenience will pass. Not soon enough. And, things may never be quite “normal” again when it’s over. That may be a good thing.

While I think the virus is to be feared, and respected, and avoided (wash your hands), I fear for the damage to our economy and to our personal liberties.

I mean, think about it, due to what we’ve been told by our government, for the first time in our nation’s history, churches are empty on Sunday mornings.

I’m not saying that it’s a conspiracy, or that it’s even unwise. I am saying that we accepted it just a little too easily.

Still, that’s really not in my realm of control…at least not right now.

What I can control is how I choose to deal with this time.

I’m practicing the necessary social distancing. Sometimes I’m even practicing it at home as we all tend to have a lot of exposed nerves.

More to the point, I’m trying to see this time as an opportunity.

I’ve got scripts, novels, and short stories to write. I’ve got art to create. I’ve got books to read.

I readily admit that, up until about Thursday of last week, I spent more time playing Roller Coaster Tycoon than I did working on any of those projects.

Over the weekend, however, I started organizing those projects a little more. And, I started looking for opportunities to learn.

No, I’m not spending $5,000 on a writing course from one of the “experts” even with the thousand dollar “discount.” But, more and more the experts are offering some free training. Sometimes it’s an hour-long sales pitch, and I rarely finish those. But some are now seeing the value of offering some free content.

Just before I started writing this post, I finished the second session of a Script Mastery course. It’s good stuff. And hopefully it will make me a better writer. I’m also signed up for a few online webinars and summits ranging from writing to Santa Claus. Again, the hope is to learn and to get better at what I do.

There is also a strong realization that some of those things on my formerly crowded to-do list weren’t getting done because I really never wanted to do them in the first place.

That’s a bit of an eye-opener. This time of adversity is allowing us to consider what is really important

So we’ve got a choice.

We can whine and post all the memes about how difficult this is (please keep posting them because some are really funny).

Or we can see this as an opportunity to reassess and get to work on things that matter.

Which will you choose?

Cover Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

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