Friday; January 22

I hadn’t seen my granddaughters in a few weeks when I got the chance to visit with them (and their mother) a few days ago. As we walked into the restaurant the girls said, “Grandpa, come sit by me.”. As you might expect this filled my heart with joy and even if we wouldn’t have done anything else, it would have made the trip worthwhile. They were unphased by COVID protocol nor weeks of being distanced – they wanted to be around me and took the initiative to express it.

As I thought about last weekend, I was reminded of how one of the casualties of 2020 was closeness. Distancing has become so engrained in us that it is going to take a while to recapture a willingness to get close again. While this is obvious in our physical proximity, I think it will take us a while to get back into investing in close interpersonal relationships. Whether it is standing around making small talk or making the time to engage in heart-to-heart conversations, many of us are going to have to force ourselves back into the uncomfortableness of physical and emotional proximity.

With some of the advances being made against the pandemic, we need to start preparing ourselves for the day when we will be able to be back together. While we still need to be cautious, there will be a time when we will need to begin to invite people back into our lives and our personal bubble. No, we aren’t out of the woods yet, but let’s start shifting the paradigm from distancing to reconnecting. The longer we wait to re-engage with people the more difficult it will be.

Think About It!

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