We made it through quarantine! The last few days were the longest. I was ready to get out of the house and enjoy the fall weather while it lasts. Our quarantine officially ended on Tuesday at 5:00pm (this was 14 days from when we last had contact with Deb and Jenny), but I decided to end mine at 3:00 so that I could fit in a run before Deb and Jenny came home from work. The weather was gorgeous, and it was amazing how much the scenery along the trail had changed in just two weeks. The trees were beautiful, and brightly colored leaves dusted the trail. My run felt incredible; it was the perfect way for me to celebrate the end of quarantine.
We celebrated as a team with dinner together followed by dessert - a small cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. It was good to be together once again.
On Wednesday, my normal daily rhythms resumed. I go to the school on Wednesday afternoons to help students trade in broken Chromebooks, so I appreciated being able to travel in the city again. I also enjoyed attending the small group home meeting at Liberti (my church here). I began attending this group the week before quarantine started, and it was great to be able to meet with them again. The group rotates weekly between discussing the sermon text, praying and catching up on each other's lives, and gathering for a social event. This week we discussed the sermon text.
On Sunday, Deb and I attended a hike of the Philadelphia Trail Club for the first time. I signed up for the club when I moved here, but it has been difficult to find hikes that occur when I do not have other program commitments and that are accessible via public transportation. Someone from the trail club had reached out to us and offered to drive us to this weekend's hike at Nolde Forest, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes away, right in the middle of Harrisburg and Philly. It was a lovely hike, and I especially appreciated the culture of the trail club. It mostly consists of older women, many who live by themselves. They come together each weekend to hike, and it was cool to experience how hiking brings them together.
As I resume "normal" here and the weather becomes colder and drearier, I am trying to find little things to look forward to. Last week, I found myself looking forward to the hike. This week, I am looking forward to carving a pumpkin with Deb, which we plan to do this Saturday together. Each day, I look forward to even smaller things like doing a short yoga practice in the morning, going for a run in the afternoon, eating dinner with my housemates, and curling up in a blanket and reading my book at night. When I am making my attendance phone calls or feeling overwhelmed with the brokenness and chaos of the world right now, having these little things to look forward to gets me through.
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