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Many years ago, I was complaining to a colleague that a project was taking more time to complete than I expected. He just laughed and said, “Kaye, it always takes more time.”
That comment has stayed with me over the many years and strangely comforted me that many things in life take more time to learn, to endure, to complete and certainly more time to be patient with ourselves.
These days, we want COVID-19 to be over, widespread testing available, a vaccine to be ready. These hopes may take quite a while to fulfill on a world-wide basis even if locally we can return to some sort of normal. It will take time to assure that these steps forward are safe for all of us and enduring.
We Americans especially are a “get ‘er done” society. We like to be proactive and confident that we can handle anything. When facing these comprehensive shutdown, stay-home, be patient orders many of us are “frothing at the bit” as my husband would say.
The more I shelter at home and attempt to sanitize our house, the more I see needs to be cleaned. Goodness! How did that thing get so dirty and why are we still keeping this item, I often ponder. House cleaning and purging also takes time. It is a never-ending chore and more worrisome these days when we need to be more vigilant about cleaning.
Meanwhile, I would rather spend my time prepping my garden beds for planting that is just around the corner, I hope. But, my raised beds wood needs staining again before I plant and several beds need more dirt or compost. Each step of prep takes time and I seem to be slower at accomplishing all this too.
Thanks to modern technology, I am now zooming with high school and college friends. That too is a learning curve and takes time. My zoom skills are improving, but a bit at a time. Our children too must be tired with the struggle of online learning. Online everything takes time to master.
Yes, we all want this pandemic to be over and return to the lives we had before. Yes, we are struggling to learn new technology to get us by in the meanwhile. Now, we are adapting to the restrictions of a “soft” opening of businesses in Colorado. Literally, every day is a new normal. Trying to be patient is hard.
It is still a huge stretch to accept “more time” for our lives to move onward, especially when our emotional reserves are nearly worn out already. Still, I encourage you to embrace this thought, “it always takes more time.”
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By KAYE SULLIVAN | Special to the Herald Times
