Stuck on PAUSE

One of the options I like most about our television-viewing arrangement is the DVR’s (digital video 

recorder) PAUSE option. Need to grab a snack, dash to the bathroom, answer the phone? Just hit the PAUSE button and not a second of the comedy/drama/information on the screen will be missed.

Other features come in right behind the PAUSE button in the handy options category. Didn’t catch that last bit of dialogue? Hit the SKIP BACK button. And SKIP FORWARD may even edge out PAUSE as our favorite feature as it allows us to bypass commercials when watching previously recorded shows. Which brings us to the “R” in DVR. We prefer to RECORD the shows we like so we can view them when we want and repeatedly if we so choose.

But I’m not nearly so fond of the huge PAUSE that has gripped 2020 due to the coronavirus. While my enthusiasm to use the down time to accomplish all kinds of things waxed strong in the beginning, by the two-month mark, I’d all but lost my drive to accomplish anything. Thankfully, in the last couple of weeks, I seem to be experiencing a slow-moving “second wind” of that initial wave of productivity.

As this PAUSE extends, my mind floods with images of the many yearly events and regular summer happenings that have been cancelled, even as I mentally SKIP BACK to review the fun and thrill of summers past. Some days I can’t help but SKIP FORWARD to contemplate the potential impact of this PAUSE on yet another season, autumn. And what about the holidays after that?

I like to be busy, go places, spend time with people, plan ahead for upcoming adventures. But I have to admit there’s been times when I wished my life came equipped with a PAUSE button. Oh, how I longed to slow down the hectic pace of life so that I could catch my breath. But just for a bit. More than a few days of down time has always left me restless and unsettled. 

As disruptions to normal life goes, this one’s been a doozy, that’s for sure. Someday, we'll SKIP BACK to this stuck-on-PAUSE period, and I'm hoping we find some good and positive and beneficial things sandwiched between the challenging, the uncertain, the unprecedented. Which means, I'd better get busy and fan this second wind of productivity into a full flame.