The blessings in a pandemic

While we are social distancing, it’s essential to stay connected, it’s part of maintaining a strong immune system. In doing so, we get to sharpen our discernment on the who, how, when, and where.

We get a chance to sidestep fear and get into the stuff we’ve been wanting to do, or to start learning how to do things differently. We don’t have to take time off to do this; the entire world is there. Our minds get to expand into creative territory, and shirking this off as a luxury we don’t have time for holds less true. As long as we are here, what about if we learn how to use technology as a creative tool rather than a time waster, and get to know our families differently since we aren’t running from one activity to the next?

In all of our busy-ness, we’ve been running ourselves into isolation and disconnect, which is the irony, because this is what we think is being forced on us now. It’s as if the Universe has given us an opportunity to go within, learn to reconnect, and learn to find new ways to do what we are doing, allowing us to see what was important in the first place, and what really is now. We get to discern when it is important to meet in person, and when we need to rest and incubate because we are feeling a little run down instead of ignoring those symptoms as we have in the past. And after all of the chaotic grocery shopping that we’ve witnessed, we get to learn how to think of others: did you know that if an item has a “WIC” next to the price on the grocery shelf label, those are what Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children recipients can purchase? If those items run out, they can’t simply pick a replacement item without those letters. According to Wikipedia, basic eligibility requirement is a family income below 185% of the federal poverty level, and WIC serves 53% of all infants. Will you grab those from the shelves?

We get to figure out how to take care of ourselves while we take care of others. It’s a moment in time, one we never would have wished for, but one we can take advantage of now that we are here. Instead of spiraling into fear, we have an opportunity to find and make the changes that we’ve been searching for.