In a post-COVID world, many of us continue to work from home, staying with our loved ones in safe and secure surroundings. However, some of us still need to go in because the client work can only be done in the office. However, we are fortunate that when we do, we can each work in our own separate offices physically distant from each other, often not even seeing each other.
It has been more than four months working this way.
Working at our kitchen tables. Working at the desk in our bedroom.
When social interaction is conducted through a barrage of chat messages or video meetings with some brave enough to turn on the camera and others embarrassed because hair salons are still too risky to venture out to.
Grateful that we can work from remote and have customers.
Guilty that many others are not so fortunate.
Going to work was a daily bother, now it’s an opportunity to get out of the house. Maybe see a colleague even if at a distance. Maybe talk with a colleague even if from six feet apart.
We miss working on a problem together. Working on a proposal is so much harder when Sara is not putting it up on the big screen and together we all hammer away at it.
However, in the midst of all this, are the water lilies unfazed by the chaos of the pandemic and in full bloom, opening every morning with the warmth of the new day. There is no one to appreciate their beauty at the pond at our office this summer. They will be back even more abundant and stronger next year for everyone to enjoy. As we wonder about the future, let us take a lesson from the water lilies and hope that our lives, next year, will be in full bloom, too.