The question is not “to be or not to be”; it is “Now what?”

The holidays and new years are over. Covid is back making headlines and surging. And winter chills have descended on NYC, where I live. For a while there in the summer and fall, it seemed like things might get back to a relative normal.

Not so fast!

We are not back in a lockdown, but the sloth pace of the world seems like it. Expect your packages to take longer to arrive still. Expect things to sell out at grocery stores and drug stores yet again. Expect your family and friends may say no to indoor dining and want outdoor dining (I’ll order take out instead in these low temps).

To use an overworked term, we pivoted when Covid hit in March 2020, working from home, sheltering in, and having Zoom birthday parties. Then the air warmed up and the threat of covid lessened and we ventured outdoors like bears waking up from their winter hibernation. We remained working online as some offices opened back up; restaurants began letting people eat indoors and gyms and fitness classes were coming alive. Now we make another pivot, actually a 180 back to being cautious, wearing our masks outdoors (for some of us), and resisting the temptation to shop in person at Bloomingdales, Forever21, etc.

As someone who is coming off having Covid-19, I can say I spent the last week sleeping, getting my daughter ready for school, wearing a mask in the house (my daughter already had it and I didn’t want to reinfect her), sleeping, and cooking dinner.

At this moment, I am especially faced with ‘Now what?” What will I do when I go outside— mask or no mask? Will I ride the subway? Will I sit indoors at a restaurant? Will schools go back to online learning? These things that I felt sure and comfortable with over the summer and fall are no longer comfortable for me. In the warmer weather, I walked almost everyday mask free (I carried it) in a nearby park. I felt free in the sense of the shackles being loosened because covid let up. Now I feel back to being shackled and cautious and will wear a mask when I walk in the park.

This is not my typical blog post with primary source quotes, musings about topics related to parenting or helping people live their best life. This is a post simply to ponder, “Now what?” as we head back inside to wait out the cold, covid, and the slowing down of the world. What is your “Now what?” and how will you handle it.