The New Normal- Nothing Normal About It

Exactly two weeks ago to the day, I was finishing up with my sons teacher conferences and headed back to work in our High Point showroom at 200 Steele.  We were working through potential catering for the High Point Furniture Market and thinking through our invitations and events. Market orders were bouncing along through our factories and our team was thinking through final product development. We were still planning on a market, businesses were open, toilet paper was plentiful.

Since that Thursday I have left running in the background my calendar with all of the events planned out into the future.  The normal one. The one that says right now I should be closing down my computer in order to take my daughter to soccer practice. Where today was Scottsdale's Design District Desert Days, and we were hosting a CEU with Inside Out. The one that says tomorrow my son has a tennis match, and it is exactly four weeks till opening day of High Point market. The one where normal means people and places and events. 

Instead we exist in this new normal, where things change on the hour yet seemingly stand still. Events are cancelled, school is cancelled, lessons and meetings are all cancelled.  Grocery stores close early and have early hours just for seniors.  Toilet paper has gone the way of the dodo bird along with all things Clorox.  Hand sanitizer, which I used to hate, is now rubbed on like hand lotion, and it too is on the nearly extinct list. Drinks with neighbors has now turned into a version of online dating, and my son's gaming is legitimately one of his few connection points with friends.

This is not normal. We take the health and well being of our associates extremely seriously and we also want to do our part to help our larger community. We are working on securing materials to put our sewers to work making masks.  We have discussed an effort to utilize our trucks to carry essential goods instead of furniture.  Our factories, a vibrant community of craftspeople who make exceptional furniture, are closing next week as we try and manage through what lies ahead. I repeat this is not normal. 

I keep telling myself to breathe. For a high functioning doer who thrives on multi-tasking and problem solving the quiet is disconcerting and leaves me feeling a bit helpless.  I have already posted over a hundred new pins to Pinterest, reorganized our digital assets, worked through most of our website imagery and we are only one week in.  What will week two bring?

If I know anything it is that we are a resilient people. Our companies are strong. Our retail and design partners are smart and creative. Our families are scrappy and tough. We will ride out this new normal. We will create new and amazing ways to engage one another.  We will take solace in our families and friends and while we are physically apart we will more than ever lean on one another to survive, indeed to thrive. We will emerge from this stronger and together and ensure that this time of cancellations, of shut downs, of social distancing, on-line learning, and uncertainty will never be our normal.