You’re Going To Miss Me When I’m Gone

I have spent the last 73 days (based on my calculations) tracking the lockdown, quarantine, shelter in place, or whatever you want to call it.

By tracking, I mean I have written a few notes down in my journal.  Nothing too elaborate.  But just some general notes to remind me of the sentiment of what I was feeling and what was going on in the climate and culture as a whole.

Overall I believe this situation was a totally oversold and overhyped by the media, who are dealers in “fear” and basically created the situation and the politics were forced to follow suit.  But I digress, this is not the point of my writings today.

This past Saturday May, 23, the gym I attend opened for the first time in the last 73 plus days. As I walked in, I was more than enthusiastic. I was so glad to be back in there and was grateful for the opportunity.  Before the lockdown, I never resented the gym, but I don’t think I always appreciated it the way I should have.

This morning the gym at our high rise building opened for the first time in 73 plus days. It was so great to walk in there, even with a lot of restrictions, and have the opportunity to get a workout in and use the equipment.

Over the last few weeks, we have now been able to actually go back into restaurants for the first time. If I am honest, I kind of liked the fact that during the lockdown we saved ourselves a lot of money by only being able to do takeout.  Mainly the savings being not spending money on alcohol while dining in.

However, being back around people, the energy in the restaurants, and supporting people to have jobs that can contribute to the economy as a whole is even better.

On Monday, my wife and I randomly went to the mall. Walking around the mall again, which is not something we did very often pre-shutdown, it was still nice to have the opportunity to do it again.

As I am sitting here typing this post, I am in my favorite coffee shop drinking my mocha.  This is something I have done for years.  I usually spend the first hour of the day in here.  During the lockdown, I was unable to sit in the coffee shop, but was thankful that they were open and I was able to get it to go.

I say all of these things really as a reminder to myself that some of the small things we take for granted can easily be taken from us.  For the most part we never think about it when we have them.

Brooks and Dunn one of the great country ban duos of all time, have a song titled “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”  The song was a great hit for a a lot of reasons, but one of them being that it is so true.  We typically don’t miss something until it is gone.  Which is why we must appreciate it when we have it.

I am not perfect by any stretch and I am sure I will forget at times.  However, I am going to do what I can to remind myself to appreciate the little things I mentioned here, but more importantly, the bigger things in life as well.