Notes from Isolation: Final Installment

Our neighbors in our mother city to the north (Nashville) are still under stay-at-home orders. But a few miles south where I live, we're slowly coming out of quarantine.

For Wife and me, things aren't changing that much. I'm still working from home and we are both not getting out much, other than to take our walks and drives. We run into a grocery store, drugstore or hardware store here and there for provisions, and those visits are planned so they are quick. We wear masks.

In each of our cars we keep a bottle of hand sanitizer. They are also strategically located throughout the house, although I much prefer plain soap and water when I'm not away from home.

We have scarcely had anyone in our house for going on seven weeks. We now attend virtual church and our small group meets that way too.

Several times during this time period, we've had friends come sit on our back deck with us for late afternoon visits. Those hours have been precious, and for minutes at a time we forget how the world has been turned upside down in less than two months' time.

Although we have enjoyed some things on TV here and there, Wife and I have learned we are not the binge-watcher types. Instead, as some evenings have stretched before us, we've pulled out some old games and refreshed ourselves on Yahtzee, Chinese checkers and Mancala.

Wife also has a computerized bridge game and I'll sit beside her and we'll play with a virtual partner.

And of course we are both voracious readers.

To be sure, we miss our family. We are getting closer to seeing them, however, and I see that coming in the next week or so.

Some close friends have a lake house in north Alabama, about two hours away from here, and it has a guest house. They have told us, should we want a change of scenery, we are welcome to use it. We have decided to take them up on that, and later today, after my workday, we will drive there and stay a few days.

It's fully equipped with Wi-Fi and it's in cell phone range, so I can work from there as easily as here.

I told Wife last night I feel like we are escaping from something, and half-wonder if we'll be stopped at the border! (I'm kidding . . . . but I do feel somewhat subversive).

In many ways these past several weeks have done a number on me. Some days I've felt downright depressed. Many mornings I have awakened feeling anxious.

But early on, as Wife and I discussed it, we agreed this is a faith-testing time. We have to draw on that, and decide if we really believe what we've always professed to believe. It's so much easier to do that when things are more stable and certain.

There is a verse in Proverbs that says to "lean not on your own understanding." I don't think it has ever been more applicable for me.

As I've previously written, I don't want to get COVID. And I sure don't want to give it to anyone.

So I am choosing to lean not on my understanding and trust the scientists and doctors who know about this kind of thing. And I'm trusting the One who has never failed me.

Because it's all I've ever known.