What will you remember most?
It’s been a year since the shutdown began in the US for Covid 19, I invite you to reflect upon your consolations (highs, moving closer to God) and your desolations (lows, moving away from God). What will you remember most? As you reflect, picture Jesus right there with you, tenderly and lovingly reviewing with you.
My response…
I’ll remember the shock and awe in the fact that a virus literally brought the whole world to a standstill. The exhausting questions of “how do we do this? or this? what about this in a pandemic?” then a reassessment of it all as something shifts in the equation and we’re back again to figuring out the answer with what we know and don’t know, exhausting. Diverse experiences through it - some people alone and lots of times on hands and becoming lonely. While families suddenly were juggling work and schooling and childcare - constant people and stressors. Intermixed into this we have political division, racial injustice, and economic instability.
Oh the highs and lows -
The slowed pace of life - a welcome change for my introvert heart. More family time. More time outdoors (which feeds my soul SO much).
The challenges to create patterns for my kids’ schooling, keeping track of zoom links, the struggle with learning online. The resiliency of my kids - adapting to zoom meetings, finding joy as they see their friends on Zoom, seeing the good in the midst of the chaos.
A MOVE from Oregon to Michigan - What? As if the pandemic itself didn’t hold enough stress, we added on this whole new layer. Social distanced goodbyes - including a special goodbye drive thru for us at church.
Exciting and memorable National Parks tour as we drove across US, with the added dimension of social distancing & masks. Glacier, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and Crazy Horse Monument (not National Park but worth it).
Disorientation in a new place and a slow settling in due to the pandemic…
Intermeshed within the list, I feel God’s whisper echoing in my heart, I am here… and here… and here… God grounded me and held me fast in the midst of the chaos. God is still whispering hope and love even as I still wait for life to move out of this challenging season.
