She looked up at me with those big brown eyes encircled by the pink rimmed glasses that frame not only her beautiful eyes but the sparkle within them and asked, “Can we go trick or treating?”.
“Oh, my goodness girl!”, I responded in a playful tone, “It’s too early for that. We have to wait until the fall when we pick pumpkins”, I explained, giving her a tangible marker for the proper season. After all it was only July. In the back of my mind; however, I couldn’t help but secretly wonder if there would be any pumpkin patches from which to pick this fall.
I turned toward the TV and input the number on the remote for the Hallmark Channel, so that she could watch a movie. Just as I did this, I remembered that they were in the middle of running their Christmas in July season favorites, so I scrambled to change the channel for fear of confusing her even more. Only a few weeks before, when our online church service opened with the scene of a candlelight room filled with musicians and singers, she had pronounced, “I’m almost ready for Christmas”. It was super adorable. Frankly I found myself identifing with the feeling. I mean really, we’ve been in limbo for so long that what one of us remembers what day it is anymore, let alone what season. And that candlelight room did look suspiciously like a Christmas candlelight service.
All of our lives have been completely interrupted by this pandemic, and with this crazy lack of normalcy and schedule in 2020, it’s no wonder why my daughter is asking what season of the year it is. It’s all just one big blur. I miss normal, and it’s clear my daughter misses normal too.
I’m sure I’m going to date myself here, but do you remember back when a news bulletin would come on the TV and interrupt your favorite show and then when it was done interrupting, I mean informing you, there would be a voice that would announce, “We now return to our regularly scheduled program”? Well whether you remember that or not, don’t you just wish you could hear that now. It would be absolutely amazing if we could hear someone simply announce, “We now return to our regularly scheduled program”. It would mean the return to normal and to all things wonderfully familiar in our lives.
Sadly, that is not what is happening today. Today we are dealing with announcements of schools continuing on with distance learning, workplaces continuing to be shut down in favor of remote home offices and zoom conference calls, and so many other interruptions to our regularly scheduled programs of life.
I say we take a page from my daughter’s book. Let’s embrace the craziness of this out of order life we’re all living and have a little fun with it. If you’re frustrated and thinking it feels like we should just carve a pumpkin, roast a turkey, decorate a Christmas tree, and be done with the year 2020, why not seriously embrace that idea and use this time to do something fun and out of the ordinary. Start some new family traditions and routines. Those of us caring for a loved one with special needs know of course that we can’t go too crazy on this, because our loved ones crave routine and sameness, but we can certainly have a little fun with it. It’s also good for our kids with special needs to work on their ability to be flexible. You could start a new family holiday. Base the holiday on your family’s favorite movie or sports team, or celebrate that Christmas in July. Start a new tradition with the family. How about an annual family Olympic games, monthly backyard camp out, weekly Friday night dance party or Saturday morning breakfast routine. Interject some new hobbies into your lives like cooking or painting which can be modified for all ages, stages, and developmental abilities. Basically, take this time which is already so chaotic and confusing and use it to create something fun as a family.
There is so much hard in this world. Why not just paint your favorite jack-o-lantern face on that summer squash and display it for the neighbors to see, roast a turkey in September and invite a few friends to dine outside for an early Friendsgiving, or set up the Christmas tree and cover it in 4th of July decorations, and simply embrace the fun in all the new possibilities you could discover with your family.
