PIVOT
My family moved a lot when I was young. Often it was within the same city, but it still required packing up an entire house, loading a U-Haul, and then unloading into the new house.
Corrina (middle) and her younger siblings.
My brother and I were typically my dad’s moving team. I’m sure there were times other adults were present to help, but the majority of my moving memories are of loading and unloading a truck with just my dad and brother. I’m not sure what made my dad think that loading refrigerators, washers, and dryers into a moving truck with an 8 and 6-year-old was a good idea, but my dad believed in us.
During these moves, my dad taught us a very important word that also became a family motto and inside joke. It was the word PIVOT. When trying to navigate large pieces of furniture down stairs, through tight doors, or up a narrow ramp, my dad would yell “PIVOT” to my brother and I to help guide the way. For years, we would remind my dad of his love of that word.
In moving, pivoting referred to tight turns. In basketball players pivot by keeping one foot in place while holding the ball and moving the other foot a step in any direction. Pivot can also mean to modify while retaining some continuity with the previous version.
In basketball, players pivot by keeping one foot in place while holding the ball and moving the other foot in any direction. Pivot can also mean to modify while retaining continuity with the previous version.
Over the past several months, my dad’s favorite word has been ringing through my head. As a family, as a nation, and even across the entire globe--humanity has had to do a lot of pivoting. My husband and I have been impressed by small businesses and local restaurants who have pivoted to remain open and serve the community in the face of new guidelines and restrictions related to COVID. Our church has pivoted multiple times to provide online services, outdoor services, and socially distanced indoor services.
Distance learning, skills-centered sports practices, drive-by birthday parties, Zoom family meets and working from home---all pivots to life before March 2020. But we have some really fun memories of family and friends surprising my 13-year-old with a drive by birthday, a car parade past my daughter’s school to celebrate her 5th grade promotion, Zoom painting with Bob Ross and a bunch of friends, and the gift of A LOT of time together as a family.
My brother and I often smashed our fingers or didn’t pivot a foot in time and had our share of moving related injuries. But somehow, we got the truck loaded and unloaded. The pivoting wasn’t without pain, it wasn’t easy, but it got the job done.
The pivoting wasn’t without pain, it wasn’t easy, but it got the job done.
As we head towards the end of 2020, the holidays are going to look and feel different for many. Difficult decisions will have to be made, accepted and respected. The beginning of 2021 is probably still going to feel like Groundhog Day. It’s not going to be easy; it’s not going to be without pain. Pivoting has always been a part of life, we just haven’t been as aware of it because it hasn’t been necessary in so many parts of life all at once. But if you reflect back, you will find circumstances and situations that caused you to pivot. And it wasn’t necessarily a negative thing.
If you reflect back, you will find circumstances and situations that caused you to pivot. And it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Go ahead and borrow from my dad. When things don’t go your way, when you find yourself disappointed, when plans change and it can’t be the way it’s always been--just look at yourself in the mirror, look at someone in your house and yell “PIVOT!” Find a new plan, create a new tradition, and make new memories. You’ll feel better, I promise. And you will be reminded that pivoting is a way of moving forward and making a way--and if you’re my family, laughing along the way.
Something to think about:
In what way have you pivoted this year and found success?
What is one way you need to pivot right now? What is holding you back?
Journal it!
Dear and Love values asking intentional questions to help us process life and challenge the ways we think. Take time to process though these questions in a journal, on a piece of paper, or in a note on your phone. Remember: there are no rules, only space to see where your time, thoughts, and words take you.