Over the weekend, I drove a few hours from Raleigh to stay with some friends. Well, more like I drove a few hours to meet their baby, but semantics. This little guy is the only “COVID baby” in my social circles, but given our activities I didn’t find out if he understands that it is the same person both with and without the mask (he is able to grasp this about wearing and taking off glasses, so that suggests he would). He isn’t quite walking, but I suspect that within a few weeks I’ll get a video of him doing so as he can just about stand up without support.

What I took most from interacting with him was how much fun babies can be when they are happy and smiling. They have an energy that doesn’t manifest anywhere else and are like a campfire given how you can’t take your eyes off them. After that, what I took from my time with him was how normal it all was. He was teething so he woke up in the middle of the night crying, wasn’t keen to go down for a nap, ate about as much food as he threw in the floor, and crawled around like someone was chasing him. COVID has had a limited impact on the little guy, and he won’t remember any of it anyway when he gets older. The world into which he will grow may be different now, but it will be the only world he ever knows and he will grow up to thrive in the world he will face.

Watching him offered a reminder of how adaptable people are and how people can accept much change and still pull through. I keep needing reminders of this myself as everything in my own life is moving slower than I would like. We continue to make pivots in the business as new challenges emerge and new opportunities arise, but I want a torrent of success while we have only a small river for now. I keep trying different ways to build the personal life I want to live here (the curling season is off to a rough start, but maybe my team will break my personal duck tonight). I am starting to travel again; this week I will be going on my first business trip in years so I can work alongside a client instead of with them over videoconference. I’m looking forward to it, to making that a part of my new normal. And so I, along with you my audience, will continue to adapt and move forward. Besides, what other choice is there?