It's not like I'm looking for something else to worry about, but hot damn we've got another live one. Saint Anne the Wife resigned from her teaching job this past Friday – that same one she'd started back in mid-November and was making double teaching here compared to what she was in Oklahoma. That fact alone was ticking one of the major boxes we had for leaving, but we quickly realized this particular job wasn't a good fit for our family. She'd leave each morning by 6:39a to catch the train and not be back till around 5:30p. It was a hot mess when I'd have a job come up and we'd have to scramble to arrange childcare. Oh, and it turns out childcare was costing us more than she was actually bringing home. Considering what she was making, I'm assuming it's a slam on both how little Oklahoma pays their teachers and how much childcare costs here in NYC.
On top of that we've pretty much lost our collective mind thanks to COVID-19. Yea, sure it's scary AF to think about what's happening at the moment and how it's impacting our daily lives – not to mention the unknowns that could or could not be around the corner.
“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?” Luke 12:25-26
Awesome. Sweet. Thanks for two sentences that should somehow manage to fix everything and let us get back to normal. Meanwhile I'll be limiting my time on the subway, not visiting the grocery store, and just take my cancelled jobs in stride while the world hoards toilet paper, dried beans, and disposable masks. I've already mentioned having a couple jobs get canceled, but now it's coffee meetings here in the city turning into video chats from home and Cloroxing every nearby surface. For sure I'm in the ranks of other freelancers feeling the lack of work, especially now my family is back to one income. But still, there it is again...
“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” Matthew 6:27
You don't want to be known as the person who doesn't have their nonsense together. You don't want to be known as a hot mess or out of control, but it's pretty much a dumpster fire out there at the moment. I'm not looking for permission to balk at my responsibilities, but surely this is a great time for extra grace. That and plenty of Reddit posts about dogs.
"This is an unprecedented moment. It’s important that we approach it with a sense of calm and responsibility—because we have many people counting on us." - Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet
Seriously I'd love to be talking about the last few jobs I've been on or how I'm using some fancy new idea to solve a problem or maybe even just quote a book I'm reading, but no. I'd be some much easier to post a random image I've shot recently but we're here dealing with things mostly out of our control, me quoting the Bible and the CEO of Google/Alphabet in nearly the same disjointed breath, and trying to lean hard into grace.