by 
Who knew we’d be experiencing a pandemic in March 2020? Not me.
In spite of the challenges, I’m finding that the forced shutdown of my daily routine is providing a powerful reason to pause. I’m embracing this invitation, this insistence, that I must slow down.
During one of my daily pauses, I was looking around my office. It’s a lovely room, with a big window from which I can see the giant rhododendrons that enclose our back yard. My office walls are the perfect shade of blue. And I have two lamps that shine soft light on my desk.
On this day, I looked up at my college diploma hanging on the wall. And at my SHRM-CP certification next to it. At the business license from the State of Washington.
On the bookshelf below, I’d propped a frame holding my Second Place Non-fiction Prize from the Write on the Sound Conference. I’d almost forgotten about it. On this day, I picked it up. I looked closer at the certificate; I won the award for my essay, Thanksgiving Tuna, in 2010. Pause: that was ten years ago! Memories flowed…my shaking hands as I stood at the front of the room. The people who told me they’d enjoyed what I wrote. The joy I felt writing that essay. And, a realization: I haven’t written a personal essay in…years.
Yes, these are difficult days. But within them, within the pause, I’m grateful for the opportunity to reflect, to remember, and yes, to remind myself of the possibilities that exist.
You’ll find a copy of my essay here: Thanksgiving Tuna_Liz Sheffield.
