A Wake up Call

Covid-19 is just a wake up call.

I have a confession to make. We did school zoom meetings literally like 5 times during what I like to call “coronation” There were no pre planned lessons, absolutely zero worksheets, no projects, no crafts, none of it. I also put zero pressure on myself or my children to pretend to want to participate in such activities. Throughout this weird period of our lives, I feel so grateful to live a rural life married to man with a spine of steel, hands of sandpaper, and a heart of gold. My kids are so busy figuring out how to work with their hands, building things they create with the YouTube tutorial they were born with between their ears, and occasionally opening a book or two to learn how to catch the biggest fish or what kind of snakes have venom. They have built a reptarium out of a loam pile, captured (and maybe dissected) a huge frog, learned tree species, and currently they are cutting our over grown grass with scissors pretending they are feller bunchers. We try to take our lunch breaks to bring their dad lunch and a coffee, showing them that we should take care of the one who takes care of us. Besides weird grocery shopping trips, no school, and occasionally checking the latest news, we would hardly notice there was a pandemic or that we are supposed to be quarantined. Our lives have hardly changed. I find myself super grateful that we already lived a fairly simple life. We don’t spend our time shuffling from activity to activity. We mostly eat dinner at home and my boys only have each other to play with anyways unless we intentionally invite friends over.

I find it funny that this life is kind of considered old fashioned, out dated or traditional but it sure came in handy during this time period. I have been home with the boys while Randy is busy in the woods all week and mulching on the weekends. I am not going to lie, it would be nice to have him home a little more but the economic impact of corona virus did not spare the logging industry and everything is moving extremely sloooooooooowwwwww. Every challenge in life is simply there because it is necessary to learn and grow. I think a lot of people have had to opportunity during these times to live a slower life, similar to how rural agricultural families live. It sure is a nice life with less consuming and scheduling and more savoring and waking up to appreciate what we already have. We do not need to seek constant entertainment and activity when it is right outside the door, especially for our children. They will make play out of literally ANYTHING.

Being a small, family business, we can appreciate the sacrifices of those who grow the food we eat, sew the clothes we wear, and create the goods we use daily. I hope covid-19 serves as a wake up call to slow down and truly appreciate, value, and savor what we have and where it came from. I hope to see farm to table continue to expand. I hope people discover where their $7 t-shirt comes from, who made it, and how in the world does it only cost $7. I hope our country imports less and we use our resources to provide for our own selves. I want people to know where the wood comes from, where the cotton came from, where the hamburger came from. There are real people making that happen and they deserve good lives. It might be a little harder to find shoes made in the USA, it is a little more work to burn wood for energy and heat, it’s a bit more time consuming to get in the car and go to the local variety store instead of two day shipping, and it’s pretty tough to find fresh strawberries at a farm stand in February. Efforts to be more intentional in our buying and consuming will be the real change we want to see in our country, I am certain of it. Our necessities will cost a little more, but more people will be earning good livings because while you’re fighting for fair wages, cleaner air, and safe working conditions here in the US, there is a child sewing our t-shirts for pennies in rat infested warehouse overseas. I know this tumultuous time has woken me up. I hope it wakes you up too!