The Great Reset

 It has been 2 years since the COVID-19 pandemic started and with life finally beginning to get back to normal, I sit here and cannot help but be grateful for what I consider my “Great Reset” that 2020 brought upon me. Because of the draconian lockdowns, many of the things that I liked to do were taken away overnight all in the name of “2 weeks to stop the spread!” However, “2 weeks to stop the spread” provided me the opportunity to appreciate my family, get back to the outdoors and camping, and get creative with my workout routine that had gotten staler than a loaf of bread left on the kitchen counter.

The best outcome of the pandemic lockdowns was definitely the time spent together with my family. My son came home from school in Minnesota in March 2020 and stayed home until August 2020. This was the longest stretch that he had been home since 2016! Although he got royally screwed out of the end of his Senior year of high school, I loved having him back in the house again. The conversations, laughter, arguments, and the full house were a blessing I will never take for granted. Because we had planned to have a graduation party at our house later in the summer, my son, daughter, wife, and I spent much of March through June working in the yard together. It was amazing how much we accomplished and we had our yard looking the best that I could remember since we moved in in 2013. Picking up leaves, trimming trees and bushes, sweeping, hauling away trash, planting new shrubs and trees, and making small repairs around the house were quite the bonding experience. It is quite surprising how hard work can bring a family closer together. I do not know how they feel about it, but I get sappy looking back at the spring of 2020. **tear drop**

Because of the kids’ participation in sports, our family camping trips came to a screeching halt sometime in the early 2000’s. Soccer and gymnastics practices, matches, meets, and out-of-state travel took much of the weekends and vacation time that we had. As a result, camping became a fond memory. With everything locked down, the itch to get out of the house was definitely needing to be scratched. Camping became a perfect outlet. By June 2020, it was clear looking at data widely available that the COVID-19 virus was affecting elderly and those with health issues more severely than young to middle aged healthy persons so we took our chances and hit the road to the great outdoors. I am glad we did because camping memories are some of the best a family can make. We bought an “instant cabin” tent from Costco and camped off forest roads with cows out to pasture in the Jemez Mountains near Fenton Lake, drove to a new destination near Chama at Trujillo Meadows where the kids created their own boat out of their air mattress to float in the reservoir, we met friends in Heber, Arizona at a cabin and played board games, cornhole, horseshoes, and beersbee, we discovered the beauty of Pagosa Springs and the nearby Teal Campground next to Williams Creek Reservoir, and we ventured off to the other side of the Jemez Mountains near Cuba and enjoyed a new forest road spot suggested by a good friend. Mother Nature refreshes the soul, makes the stress of civilization go away, and allows the mind to wander. The summer of 2020 will definitely be one I will not forget.

Finally, COVID-19 really did something strange to me that was completely unexpected. It made me miss the gym IMMENSELY! I never truly knew just how much being active kept my mind in a stable state. When gyms locked down, I took a couple of weeks off from working out, mainly due to all the yard work we were doing. I did notice, however, that the yard work was not satisfying my need to work out to maintain a healthy state of mind. I like lifting weights and running but without a gym with weights and a treadmill, I was forced to rethink my fitness regimen. I began running outside on the trails near my house and going to a nearby park to do push-ups, lunges, pull ups on the monkey bars, squats, and step ups on the benches. After a few weeks of this, I began feeling physically and mentally well again.

Because I was going to the same park around the same time everyday, I met a young man with a disability who would ride his bike to the park. One of his jobs was to refill the doggie poop bags provided by the City of Albuquerque in the receptacles near the playground. He would tell me the same story every time I saw him about his job at Smith’s and how customers can be real pain. I loved it and it took me back to my time working for the City of Albuquerque Therapeutic Program during college. I will need to do that workout again and see if he still shows up! Since 2020, I have been more consistent with my fitness and have never felt or looked better.

2020 was a difficult year, but somehow we created lasting, positive memories during that time, reminding me of a quote credited to Epictetus: “It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” I cannot agree more.