Reporting from my world: What's your silver lining right now?
What’s happening right now hasn’t happened to anyone in generations: a near-total shutdown of life as we know it. Restaurants, movie theaters, and schools are empty. People mostly stay home, but when they do go out for essentials, they wear masks and gloves. It feels surreal and uncomfortable, like the Twilight Zone.
That said, we’re going to focus on the sunny side for this one.
In my line of work, I can’t do what I do without a team of people to help. Day in and day out, these folks are the engine that keeps Spinaca Farms chugging forward, bringing nutritious food to our customers in a safe, creative, and timely way. Like you, each of them has experienced a disruption in their lives due to the effects of COVID-19, as well as some blessings. So I decided to ask them:
What’s your silver lining today?
Rick and Jeannette Andrade, founders
The silver lining is renewal. What was old is new again. In the words of Eckhart Tolle:
“Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as you had chosen it.” If you look high enough for the light and the silver lining, you will find it.
Businesses that survive will learn how to adapt to fewer brick-and-mortar offices, less travel, less overhead costs. Telecommuting will be the “new norm.” Businesses will have to pivot on their creativity to adapt to the new work environment and customer’s needs and demands. New opportunities will present for the new generation of entrepreneurs, those who are ready and lean enough to maneuver the mountain.
On a personal level, the world needed time to rest, regroup, and repurpose priorities. To gather
together in support of each other. To examine what is really important with regards to work, health, family. To balance saving with consuming. Renewing or discovering faith, new skills, resilience. Affirming or learning that people can endure and surmount more obstacles and hardships than they ever thought they could. To affirm or learn that we are survivors of whatever life throws our way. We are forced to learn, practice true grit, to dig deep into our roots and to begin to grow again.
Jaime Lewis, copywriter
I have a lot to be grateful for. My family and I are healthy, comfortable, warm, sheltered, and fed. And between online schoolwork, housework, board games, bike rides, piano duets, and Netflix, we’re pretty well-entertained, too. If I’d known ahead of time the magnitude of this pandemic’s impact, I couldn’t have believed I’d be living so serenely in the moment. To be honest, I’m prone to freaking out, even about small things; on top of that, I’m more of a sprinter than a long-distance runner. So I think my silver lining is being surprised by my own endurance and joy amidst all this. I’m practicing calm, taking things one day at a time, and not letting the burdens of tomorrow distract me from the gifts of today. I’ve always said I wanted to live in the present, but this might be the first time I really have. With so much news coming at us so fast, and so little certainty, we don’t have much of a choice, do we? For that, I’m thankful.
Brock Woody, manager of supply chain and key accounts
Oh boy, these are uncommon times. In general, I’m a cup’s-half-full kinda guy, but being stuck at home you can easily fall back on thoughts of what you wish you could be doing as opposed to what you have right in front of your face.
My silver lining is getting to be with my kids every day all day.
On a typical work week I’m out the door before they’re up (like a lot of parents), so getting to spend the morning time with them has been special.
Starting a scooter gang with my son who just turned 4 and initiating my wife and daughter (22 mo) into our gang.
Chasing my daughter around the house at 11 am on a Wednesday while she laughs uncontrollably.
Family walks planning our next day activities.
My wife and I were talking the other night and she wishes we took a picture of the kids the first day of shelter in place and the last day to see how much they grew. My reply to her was we should have taken a picture of us too to see how much we aged.
April Cole Worley, marketing director
I am loving seeing the people who live in our neighborhood walk by our house with their kids every single day. A common refrain in our house now is, "Who is that cute family?" It's like a parade of laughing kids and adorable dogs. I put a teddy bear in our window and we've been keeping our yard up and it feels like that effort means something richer now. To throw some beauty in front of people is a powerful thing—I hope we don't all collectively lose that again.
Juan Carlos Adape, production manager
The coronavirus has altered my life for sure, and my family’s life. All my kids are home right now which is nice but I work in farming which is an essential business. We have been busy trying to manage the crops and harvest product for a new customer base because some of our long-term customers have stopped or really slowed down their ordering. I’m happy to be working and know that, no matter what, people have to eat. It makes me feel proud to be able to grow food for other people’s families. We will make it through this and be stronger when it’s over.
Michael vandenBerg, graphic designer
One thing I’m realizing in the midst of this pandemic is that it’s altered my perspective on things. This new situation is reminding me of what really is essential, all the different people we rely on, and how interconnected we all are. So, some shelves are bare. What happens if the shelves never get restocked? What happens if food shipments don’t get delivered, and there’s nothing to restock? What if the fields can’t be harvested, or the crops are just plowed under? Or if there aren’t any seeds to plant in the first place? It’s become easy for me to see that our civilization has to be continually built, every day, by people working together.
This definitely won’t be the last time things get upended on a national or global scale, and we have to adapt to difficult and unprecedented circumstances. The world is changing in a very real way, and the challenges we’ll face will be more frequent, and more global. My hope is that we don’t forget the lessons we’re learning during this crisis – how to be prepared for a volatile future, how to organize our response to emergencies, what we truly value, and how to work together and exist together. We’re figuring out what kind of society we want to live in, which is a great place to start.