What I Learned During the Stay At Home Order aka Quarantine Life

Anyone else stuck in their home?

I live in California and if you have been watching the news, you would know that we have be told to stay home since the beginning of April 2020. Everything has been shut down. It is as if the world has stopped. What a time to be alive. Everyone has been stripped of what they do, their titles, jobs, enjoyments, outings and way of life. We have all been forced to sit in our homes and wait. Some of us have learned a lot about ourselves, our family and our own mind from this time. Some of us have gone crazy wonder and waiting for our lives to begin again.

At first this was fun, no work, school or places to be. It was a dream that every high school kid wish would have happened during their school years. Then the joke, became a nightmare, no graduation or prom. People can't go to concerts or baseball games. The beaches are empty and the waves crash on our coast with no one to hear.

But even with all of the bad, there is still some good to learn from this life altering situation. I want to share with you all what I have learned throughout this quarantine.

1. Be Still

Since the “stay at home order” began in the end of March/beginning of April, the phrase “Be Still” has constantly been on my mind. It comes up at the most random times. I could be enjoying a meal, scrolling through social media on my phone, doing homework, talking to my family or facetiming a friend when that phrase rings through my mind.

For those of you that might not know, this phrase comes from the Bible, Psalm 46 to be exact. Usually it is accompanied by the rest of the verse, "Be still, and know that I am God".

Yet I've only been thinking about that first portion of the phrase "Be Still". It is something that I don't do very often. Do you? I have my life so impacted and on such a tight schedule that I forget to include time out of my day strictly devoted to myself and God. I need to “Be Still” more often in my life. It is not that God is silent in my life, it is that I have been so distracted.

2. I can’t control everything

Anyone that knows me is aware that I like timelines. Quarantine life has completely destroyed those timelines and at first I was frustrated and panicked. But, I learned to manage and adapt. I have learned the only thing that I can truly control is my own actions, reactions, heart and mind. For anyone who loves to control things, events or carries a planner that they so dearly love, knows that this is a hard lesson to learn but it is definitely freeing.

We sometimes have this perfect picture of how our life is suppose to play out, but sometimes there are other plans for your life and there is nothing you can do about it but accept it and move forward. The need to have control of everything can swallow you up and make you loose sight of everything else that you are missing. Learn to let things go.

And the last little lesson I have learned is...

3. Time is priceless

You can never get time back. Do not live life with regrets because you were scared of afraid of rejection. Who cares! It is better to have given it your all instead of wishing you would have done or given more. Do not go through life just waking up everyday and going through the motions. Live. God didn’t put you on this planet to simply do the minimum. Don’t let life pass by you. Do not waste your time. We are all stuck at home, wishing to get back into our lives which we all took for granted. Learn how to appreciate and make the best out of every moment.

These lessons are basic phrases we see on some motivation instagram post. But, if they are so basic, why don't we appreciate and learn from them. They should be foundational things we all have and do in our lives, instead they are things we often neglect or forget about. Don't let life pass you by when one day you'll look back and wish you would have taken more time for yourself, your family and doing the things you love.

Don't waste your time on temporary things that pull you away from what you really want.