Hello Friends,

What an emotional whirlwind it’s been the past few weeks! One thing that’s been constant around here is change. I don’t know about you, all of this change has been a bit disconcerting for me. Life as I know it seems surreal. I wonder if you feel the same way? 

My family and I are doing the best we can to roll with the punches and create some kind of normalcy, whatever that means these days! 🙂 We’ve had some fun outings like going to the drive-in (which I highly recommend) and we ate at Rob’s favorite restaurant in St. Helena with his parents (safely distancing). We participated in a peaceful march to support Black Lives Matter which was organized by a thoughtful, caring, and compassionate 11-year old girl in our community. We’ve prayed A LOT & read the Bible & devotions together and had numerous, heartbreaking discussions about the state of humanity and what we can do to affect change. 

We’ve tried new recipes, enjoyed scrumptious wine and I made cake pops for my sister’s milestone birthday. We saw my side of the family for the first time since SIP. We had a water gun fight, played basketball, had a few meltdowns, our fair share of family fights, and got on each other’s nerves. 

We helped five of our clients buy or sell a home and we helped organize and deliver food to the under-resourced families in Redwood City. Of course, we continue to watch movies (we actually had a Marvel movie marathon and watched all 23 Marvel movies in chronological order) and we still play lots of board and card games! 

Now that restrictions are beginning to ease, we’ve also been challenged with the question:  When life goes back to normal, do you want to go back to your normal life? It’s quite a question, isn’t it? For me, what I’ve enjoyed most through sheltering in place is all the quality time I’ve been able to spend with my family and reconnecting with old friends and extended family via video conference calls. Truly this slow down in my life has given me a new perspective. I don’t want to go back to my “normal life.” I intend to create a better quality of life for myself and my family. I intend to focus on being present and stop worrying. It might not sound like much, yet for me it’s huge! I was convicted recently by Michael Jordan’s documentary, “The Last Dance” – a reporter was quoted saying that MJ’s greatest gift was the ability to be present and when everyone else on the team was worried about making a shot, MJ’s philosophy was, “Why should I worry about a missing a shot I haven’t even taken yet?” I love that! Clearly, this is why he is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time!

As we ease back into society, I look forward to seeing you all face-to-face (social distancing, of course), and may we all look forward to making those future shots in life with eager anticipation and confidence – believing that good things will happen when we do!

Love, your biggest fan,

Rica