Shipwrecked: 4) Create a Routine

You probably already have a pandemic/quarantine routine. But how is it working for you?

I had one. It was, more or less:

* Wake up before the alarm with my mind churning with all the thoughts I hadn't dealt with
* Get on Facebook and read articles about coronavirus
* Have coffee and read more articles
* Work work work
* Lunch: Grab something ridiculous from the refrigerator or pantry and take it back to my computer
* Work work work
* Gulp down dinner
* Work as if by my efforts, I could make coronavirus disappear
* Watch evening news dissection
* Toss and turn
* Have nightmares based on the evening news dissection

This really was not working for me. Duh! But my family members were more or less working on their own version of that routine. One of my teens had flipped her schedule completely, sleeping all day, and awake all night. This wasn't good for any of us.

Not all at once, but I am beginning to establish some routines that suit me better. Cocktail/Mocktail Time outside, dinner at the table.

What are the routines you have fallen into, and what are the routines that would make you happier and, dare I say, more peaceful?

Comments

Me and My Collar

You may run into me on a Friday, in my neighborhood, so it's time I let you know what you might see. When I was doing my required unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), my supervisor suggested that any of us who came from traditions where a clerical collar was an option, take one "collar week," to see how we were treated, as opposed to wearing regular professional clothes. After a couple of days, I joked to the Catholic priest, "How do you manage the power?" In regular clothes, I would walk into a patient's room, and it would take about 5 or so minutes of introductions and pleasantries before we could really get down to talking about their feelings, their fears, the deep stuff. With most people, as soon as that clerical collar walked in the room, with me attached, they began pouring out all the heavy stuff they were carrying. I was riding the bus back and forth every day, and though not quite so dramatic, the collar effect was alive there, to...

Beloved Community: The Now and Not Yet

Rev. Christine Robinson has a great little post up about the phrase "beloved community" and why it's problematic to use that to describe a church. Like her mom, I can get cranky about the whole thing, but my crankiness lies in the misuse of what is, to me, such a breathtaking and profound concept. Martin Luther King, Jr., someone whose words I study in great detail, is the one we often think of as originating the term, but he learned about it through the writings of Josiah Royce. Josiah Royce (right) with close friend William James. Royce was a philosopher, studying Kant, Hegel. I imagine he would have enjoyed Koestler's theory of the holon , because he saw humanity as being both individuals and part of a greater "organism" that was community. As King's belief about Beloved Community would be rooted in agape , Royce's philosophy stemmed from what he called loyalty, and by that he meant, "the practically devoted love of an individual f...

Wordle, Wishes and Boundaries

Wordle, Wishes, and Boundaries In the beginning was the Wordle. Some people liked it, and some people didn’t. And then more people liked it, and they began posting about it on social media, especially Facebook. And so then more people found out about it. Some people liked it, some people didn’t. So, what can we learn about systems theory from the current zeitgeist of Wordle? First things to understand: There will not be an objective truth that is universally agreed upon. Is Wordle good, is it bad, should people share or not share … this is all immaterial. The issue is: What are your wishes? What are your boundaries? A wish is something you’d like, but in healthy relationships, it is not an expectation. It is not a boundary. I sort of wish my spouse liked Brussels sprouts so we could share in my delight, but he doesn’t, and that’s okay. He’s happy for me to eat all of them. A boundary is something so important that you create a consequence if ...

Boots and Blessings

Search This Blog