Beginning again

Quarantine is ending for some of us. Some of us are now living under Safer at Home. The world is trying to put itself back together again and establish what the new normal will be. We’ve collectively had a world wide pause and yet I feel like life was still just as busy during the pause. (Should we be calling this The Great Pause or is that too dramatic?) Sure there was about a week, maybe two where things were not as busy but then people adapted. Groups kept meeting (virtually), work still happened for some, friends interacted. None of this is bad but I’m not sure what I’ve done with my pause.

At the beginning of this, I bought some seed, containers and potting soil…. that project hasn’t happened. I haven’t tried to make French macaroons again. I’ve made bread, pizza dough, and cookies. I’m trying to make babka as I write this. I’ve read books; started a new Bible study; started writing another story. I haven’t finished watching  Legend of Korah or Supernatural. Other people have done home improvement projects, started their gardens and so many other things. Compared to others I don’t seem to have done that much and that’s the crux of the problem. Compared to them, I haven’t done much but we are not on the same path or the same people. I don’t need to have done what they did to have a success pause and what I started with this pause doesn’t need to be completed by the time the new normal comes about.

When the new normal takes over, I hope to have gained more understanding of myself. I have spent a lot of time during these days thinking about where I want my life to go. My job offers career coaching which has been very helpful for me to look in directions I’ve looked before but deemed to risky. I’m a practical person so risk taking isn’t my forte but life contains risks. And yet God gave us talents, passions and interests - each of us These three areas are connected in our lives but we have to find them and figure out what the similarities are in order to pursue something that fulfills us. For me those three areas boil down to cultures, food, people and writing. 

Trying to place those all together though has been a bit more difficult. How can I combine all these things into something I would want to do? I could open a cafe or restaurant or bakery or keep going with this and make it successful. There are so many options that would work and focus on those passions. But it’s easy to remain in the comfort zone and not push myself into something new and life giving. The Comfort Zone though doesn’t allow for growth. It allows things to remain the same. Getting outside your Comfort Zone is scary at first since you enter into the Fear Zone but from there you can enter the Learning Zone and finally the Growth Zone. These zones aren’t easy to go through yet we have to go through them in order to reach our potential. 

I don’t know my next step in life but taking time to look at who I am during this time has been helpful. Now I just need to get out of my comfort zone and find people who own businesses like what I’m thinking I’d like to do (or at least similar). There’s a collective wealth of knowledge around us if we take the time to ask. Experience teaches us all and enables us to make this world better and we can pass that onto others. We don’t have to just stay in our bubbles and grumble. Life has many things to offer us as we start interacting with others once again in a more normal sense.

If you know of anyone who owns their own business that’s a restaurant, bakery, cafe or catering company, please let me know. I would love to talk to them and see what they can teach me about getting into that industry.