So I’m going to guess you’ve been stuck at home for a little while now. Yeah, me too. Everywhere I turn, I wonder if anyone is talking about anything except quarantine and COVID19!
For some families right now, the fear and anxiety is primarily economic. For others, health related. For still others, social (academic, religious, communal, etc). We are all experiencing this time in a unique way and space. It is placing a burden on individuals and families to creatively find solutions to communal problems.
I know right now, for our family, the primary struggle is under-met spiritual needs. We are yearning for the time that we can return to community and the sacraments.
While being quick to encourage friends and family to remember that this is a time to keep things simple and be gracious with themselves, I heartily failed to remember that for myself. I wandered through the last half of Lent and Holy Week in some sort of spiritual and emotional fog. After speaking with a trusted friend, I realized that what I really craved was permission to do what I know our family is good at.
I needed permission to be unapologetically us:
To solve problems the way that we solve problems.
To face crisis the way we face crisis.
To communicate and fellowship with each other in our favorite and most treasured way.
I needed permission to celebrate what can be celebrated even when it makes no sense to anyone else. (Like making Baptism cupcakes for a child who is going to die.)
What I really needed was to unapologetically return to our family mission.
Weeks before quarantine began, I did a podcast interview with Deanna Bartalini on my most recent book, MISSION: FAMILY. What a timely reminder to return to basics that book has been to me during this time!
One of the things our family enjoys is a big project, undertaken together. We love celebrating our faith together in unique ways. It is our desire that our homestead reflect all aspects of what is important to us- especially faith and family.
Enter our go-big-or-go-home-oh-wait-we-are-already-there quarantine family project for Divine Mercy Sunday.
Now, I’m going to guess most of you don’t have a spare building desparately in need of paint. Conveniently located in the middle of nowhere.
The point isn’t the size or scope of this project but that it was ours. Everything from the size to the subject to the method was unique to us. We found ways to include every member, from small to tall. Our faith sometimes seems missing right now and this will remind us forever of a sacramental presense right where we are. (Some of the kids thought I may have gone too far when I suggested that perhaps they would visit the farm and tell their children the story of the Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday we didn’t go to church…)
I wrote MISSION: FAMILY to empower Catholic families to discover and embrace their unique identity.
My words came from experiencing extended harship as a family and learning how we thrived and how we did not.
I have seen firsthand that hardship brings out both the good and the bad of family life. I imagine that most of us have identified at least one specific relationship or habit that has been amplified through together-all-day-every-day quarantine life!
Rethinking family mission and projects in light of social distancing and quarantine
I usually encourage families not to make big changes during stressful periods. In fact in the first few weeks of this, I went on Instagram and told people thrown into school at home not to think of this as homeschooling, but crisis schooling. For the most part I stand by that.
On the flip side, life right now is one big change. If you don’t have a clearly definied family mission and identity you might be struggling a bit more right now. You might lack routines and structures to fall back on.
Could MISSION:FAMILY help?
Or does it just create another thing to do in a time we are all overwhelmed already?
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself these past few days. The truth is, as an author and speaker I’m not exactly working right now. Amazon is not shipping books. Speaking engagements are cancelled. (Although I will say digital curriculum sales are at an all time high so there is that!) I’m also sharing our limited rural bandwidth with a PSEO student and a college professor who are now working from home.
But this is what I know… Just like go-big family homesteading projects are my family’s thing.
If you are struggling right now and not sure where to start, I want to send you a copy of MISSION: FAMILY. I only have a limited number at home, but I am going to send them to you for whatever you can pay. If that’s a couple dollars to cover shipping, up to full cover price ($10) plus shipping. Whatever you can pay.
Over the next several weeks, I am going to walk you through each of the sections. I will share family projects and activities, along with activities and considerations for this particularly difficult time we are living in right now.
Even if you don’t have a copy of the book, if you are struggling right now I want to support you. Throw me questions and tell me what is hard. I don’t believe any of us are going to come out the other side of quarantine whole by downplaying the realities of how difficult it is now. I worry that many hearts will be broken, emotionally and spiritually, through this ordeal.
If you would like a pay-what-you-can copy of MISSION: FAMILY, please click here and I will send you a paypal link once I have confirmed that I still have books available. Shipping to the US only.
If you happen to already have a copy of MISSION: FAMILY and have worked through it as a family, I reworked MISSION: FAMILY Lent Edition to MISSION: FAMILY Let’s Talk About Service Edition. It is available here for use as a six week family study of service. All activities and projects are adaptable to this strange time we live in.
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