Silver Linings

It's been five days of holding up in our home away from the smoke. Headaches and feeling sick were symptoms my family felt from hazardous levels of smoke in the air from the Oregon fires.

After the sky turned dark on Tuesday (Sept 8th) and we tried to get away from it to no avail, we had to remain home. Basically, sheltering in place, towels over our AC units, every window shut tight, and the kids with clear instructions NOT to open them even a crack.

It was awful and dark and I went back into a survival mode that felt all too familiar after March's quarantine. I felt depressed, not just by being trapped at home, but my seasonal depression immediately kicked in as the skies were dark all day long and I barely could wake myself up in the morning because it never really got light.

It was horrible, miserable, and we watched A LOT of TV!

Then, there were moments that only happened because there literally was NOTHING to do, no places to go, and we were stuck. One of these moments was my daughter sitting on the heater vent (it had got cold enough with the sun being blocked to turn on the heater) trying to get warmed. I instantly remembered happy childhood memories of sitting on the heater on cold coastal days. I went and lay on the floor next to her and taught her my tricks of keeping all the warm air in under the blanket that was pulled over us. 

Our cuddling on the heater turned into a game of trying to throw dried cranberries into each other's mouths, which got me guffawing and covering my eyes from my daughter's bad aim. It was a beautiful moment in the midst of a hard week and it felt like gold. We had nothing else to do but just cling to each other, watch TV, and come up with random, sweet ways to have fun. 

It was a silver lining.

So many things in 2020 have really sucked! First, the pandemic took over everything, then the riots, and now the wildfires that have destroyed so many home and left families displaced. It's been a HARD year, but there's always a silver lining. What's yours?

Much love,

-Joy