Demo Day

It’s Demo Day!

Just hearing that phrase stirs excitement inside of each of us. It’s the day that represents a tearing down in order to create space for something new. The day we take action to open up walls in order to see a space differently or breaking ground to give space for an entirely new structure. It’s exciting and yet, this last year and a half I have struggled a little bit with the dichotomy I feel between a construction demo day and the reality of a personal “demo day”.

The last 18 months has been a time of personal demolition that has come in waves and even now, these waves keep crashing in. We all had our lives put on hold and completely disrupted. We may have had family or friends die, schools were closed, social gatherings were canceled. This is our own personal “demo day” of sorts but instead of feeling the excitement of being able to create something new, we feel fear, cling to the past and mourn for what we have lost, all that has changed...all that has been cancelled. This is a completely normal reaction! 

The truth is, demolition is hard, dirty work.As a standalone activity it is horrible! The only reason we find joy in it is the fact that we have a plan! We know our purpose and have a vision for the end result! Without a plan, it is easy to get bogged down in the mire. For each of us, this time has taken simultaneous destruction, planning and renewal to survive! 

We learned how to create “inside outside” spaces in order to eat out and keep restaurants alive. We learned how to help our kids learn from home...and then adjust to the constantly changing instructions on how to get them back in school. We learned to create new spaces inside our homes in order to accommodate it now also being aschool and professional office. Perhaps most importantly, we learned how to slow down and spend more time with our families, at first because we had to, and now because it is our new normal and we choose not to go back to the version of life we once had.

The rebuilding is hard and it can take a long time. There is progress forward and then steps back. Looking back at this time, Iseethe new things that have come out of it. I can see the vision for what life looks like moving forward and have hope in all that has been torn down because it has cleared room for something new. If we let them, the lessons of demo day can change our focus and help us continue to look towards the future rather than the past. We can find joy in the destruction because it gives us hope in the new things that will emerge. There is beauty in the rebuildingeven in the midst of the settling dust and the day in and day out incremental changes that result in the vision. 

We will all look back at this time as onehuge demo day where we had to keep oureyes lookingtowards thebeauty that is emerging around us and in ourhomes.Thatthe joy is. Just like a in a construction project, it may take a while but the results will be stunning!