Orchestrate: Our Lake

It’s Good Friday. As i reflect on the past few weeks I am grateful there is a much more good than bad. of course, we are still in lockdown which really means we should stay home and not gather in large groups but, we are healthy and safe.

Orchestrate: To arrange or control the elements of, as to achieve a desired overall effect.

Our schools are shuttered until April 30th, at least until April 30th. Several states have closed schools for the academic year, but Illinois has not. Yesterday, I spoke with my colleagues and my principal via Zoom and while it’s great to see them and talk with them, it doesn’t replace the spontaneous interactions of popping next door into their classroom or the conversation at the end of the day about something amazing a student did or said, or simply asking what my colleagues were looking forward to over their long three day weekend. I miss the girl in my last class of the day who always asked me what I was doing over the weekend. That’s what I miss the most.

After the first couple of weeks of quarantine and e-Learning, spring break started. It was an eerie beginning for a spring break. Our plans to travel to the Florida Keys and warm weather were cancelled by the virus, so we decided to travel to our lake home in Michigan to visit for a couple of days. We were only planning to visit for a couple of days so we took what we needed to survive for a few days – clothes and enough food for the five of us (me, my wife, daughter, and our two puppies) to subsist without contacting the local population.


We arrived late Sunday afternoon, unloaded, and took in the lake and the lake house. We unpacked and allowed the puppies – really a dog and a puppy – 10 years old and 1-year old run and stretch, while we did the same. I took a nap and broke my stretch of eight days in a row of exercise.

The next day we spring cleaned the yard and moved purposefully – yard work and a long walk.

Somewhere in the middle of that day while raking and hauling and hauling and raking, I had the thought of staying here until everything blew over. On Tuesday our governor announced schools would be closed until April 30th and decided to stay which meant we needed to return home and come back. After some thought, we decided to divide and conquer – I stated with the puppies and my wife and daughter went home and came back. They’ve been back a week and I’ve been here almost two.

This shift has been restful and the electrons which power both my e-Teaching and my daughter’s e-Learning work as well here as they do at home, maybe even better.

Earlier this week the lake ice melted, the grass is greening, and spring is arriving, slowly. Wednesday it rained and I broke my current five-day exercising streak. Yesterday was windy and snowy replacing the calm lake we experienced in our first week with a white-capped wind-swept lake.

We are healthy, safe, and well. Earth is renewing. It’s orchestrated: the ice melts, the wind blow, the rain and snow fall, the birds sing, and the flowers bloom. We are where we need to be. Earth is renewing and so are we.

Today is gonna be a great day, I know it and I can feel it. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the days COUNT, one day at a time, it’s orchestrated.

What ‘orchestra’ do you hear?

orchestrate1
daffodil and hyacinths bloom, a gift from home to the lake

NOTE: This post is inspired by the WordPress Discovery Prompt: Orchestrate.

6 thoughts on “Orchestrate: Our Lake

  1. Love that you can spend this time on the lake! If you have to be housebound, might as well have that view! Here in Michigan (which I am guessing you are too now, based on the mug?) the governor told us to decide where to live, our primary or our cabin and then STAY there! Too bad my cabin is in Alabama….too far and too dangerous to drive that far. Enjoy your stay here!

    1. I am a few hours north of you (I believe you live in the metro Detroit area) along 75. Our home is suburban Chicago….. we began our isolation on 3/16 or so… no school and our last church service with fewer than 30 parishioners in a service of usually 100 or more. I’ve been here two weeks and it’s been amazing. It’s cold, but the lake ice has melted and when the sun shines, it is glorious. We’ll be here until we have to go back, currently the IL governor has the schools closed until the end of the month… but I anticipate that may change. We are safe and well and healthy and enjoying the fresh air. I hope you and your family are safe and healthy. Peace.

  2. Gosh. We’re not allowed to travel to second homes (on the basis that you may unwittingly take the virus with you to an area that’s less well-equipped to cope), so make the most of it. It’s so strange at the moment, isn’t it? But I will own to quite enjoying it, while nobody I love is affected. The slow pace is something I could get used to! Stay safe.

    1. I too am enjoying the decrease in ‘noise’ a quieter life is much more relaxing. some of the side benefits of this isolation is that we are eating as a family more often – almost nightly. As for being at the lake……. there was no direct order not to travel to another location until yesterday in Michigan. So we are here…. we hemmed and hawed about heading up north. When we left we had already isolated for 2 weeks at home before we left. We traded a suburban county of almost 1M people part of an urban area of 8M people for a rural county of 13.5k people. The pace of life up here is much slower, even in summer when the lake population increases. Thanks for visiting and stay safe and well. Peace

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