Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: Am I learning to be adaptable?

For me, adaptability is a way of life. Granted, what I call adaptability had never really been seriously tested until the pandemic hit, and even then, honestly, for me, adaptability meant learning how to work at home all the time, wear masks in stores, have no close contact with anyone but my husband, and make peace with the idea that I wasn’t going to be going to live concerts or travelling much any time soon. It definitely outlined some of the limits of my personal agency.

But I’ve shifted many times in my life—shifted majors in university, shifted life goals, shifted priorities. I’ve jumped on opportunities and been open to learning (a part of me, I think, that really helps me be adaptable). As I’ve aged, I’ve never fallen into a real rut, at least in terms of my engagement with the world. Things change. That’s reality. To paraphrase Gandalf, “All that remains for us to determine what to do with the time that is given to us.” And raging against change is counterproductive. Far better to learn to analyze the change in order to determine the best response.

*****
Had my little field trip to Gitta’s today and have now started in on the next sections of my embroidery. Flag count is up to 11 now. Then had a good long walk.

Ontario announced today that it is dropping the wait time after a first AstraZeneca shot to 8 weeks. That means Dave is already eligible and I’ll join him a week from Monday. However, we have the driveway repaving to come and I don’t want to schedule anything until that’s out of the way. Honestly, as well, I am happy to get the next shot in early July — maybe a 10 week gap. The longer one waits, the better the protection. I’d like to have the shot done and two weeks passed before (hopefully) CWH reopens. Just over 500 cases in Ontario today, incidentally.

This time last year, we were told we’d be able to have “social circles” of up to ten people. Those were nice while they lasted. Fingers crossed that by the end of the summer, we might just be able to do that kind of thing once again.