Today we live out the longest night of the longest year of our lives. The sun will come out tomorrow. May we start to see it.
Some challenges:
1. The fragility of our health and the reality of death is staring at us in a way it wasn’t last year. But maybe, just maybe, facing death can help us to better appreciate Life.
2. We’re not meant to be distant from each other. We’re social beings. We’re meant to hug, to hold one another’s hands through the tough times, and to come together when life gets hard. But maybe, just maybe, each of us can find that Strength Within when Distance is commanded.
3. We’re watching destruction all around. Our businesses are getting destroyed; our entire educational system is getting dismantled; our excursions, hobbies, travel, and sources of entertainment and leisure are all crashing down. But maybe, just maybe, we can build something new. We can’t grow a new tree until the old one is cut down.
Reflecting on all this, I think about these blessings:
1. God is cleansing our planet. We were clearly doing a crappy job of caring for our planet, so our loving Divine source needed to do it for us!
2. We are reflecting within ourselves like never before. We're learning, we're growing, we're finding our inner strength.
3. We’re discovering what Life really is about and what it really means to us.
4. We’re connecting with people from all over with a technology – Zoom – some of us never knew existed, and now we’ll happily keep using it!
5. We’re cleaning house, so we can start all over. Our country is cleaning house (thankfully!), our communities are cleaning house, our businesses are cleaning house, our schools are cleaning house, our own homes are cleaning house, and we are cleaning “house” each within ourselves.
6. We’re slowing down! The Prophet Daniel was given a dream – a nightmare, in fact – of a time when people will be “running to and fro and knowledge will increase” (Daniel 12:4). A much later set of prophets – OK, musicians, Simon & Garfunkel – saw the same thing: “Slow down. You’re moving too fast. You’ve got to make the morning last.” We’re no longer running to and fro. We’re learning how to slow down. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll start to make the morning last.
* * *
On a personal note, after a rough
pandemic start at their schools, both of our kids and their schools rose to the
occasion, and they’ve closed out 2020 with strong success at school, in their
lives, and, thankfully, with the needed connections with their friends.
My husband made it back to work in August, thankfully, where he can do his job as a School Psychologist properly, by working with students in person to evaluate them for services. His many gigs were cancelled, but his band did manage to put out two great zoom videos. You’ll especially get a kick out of kick in the head.
When you're smiling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnIg9-hN724
Kick in the Head (COVID-19 Spin-off)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm5ovF5UfSg
Never could I have guessed when I applied for, and received, a quarter-long sabbatical in the spring of 2019 for the spring of 2020 that I had picked the ideal time to go on sabbatical. I had been looking forward to having the house to myself during my sabbatical for my creative projects. Ha! That didn’t happen! I was also intending to use the time to work on my spiritual quest novel, Just like Eve, but couldn’t get into the spirit of fiction during the pandemic, so I wrote a series of pandemic posts, my paradoxical childhood story from Sao Paulo to San Jose, and finally(!) just returned to the fiction (explained here).
In the fall, I advocated for hybrid instruction (with, of course, masking and distancing for the 2 days/week in class) for my students and never would have imagined how hard that advocacy would turn out to be, but I’m grateful I succeeded. Due to the need to full-class zoom for a week at a time a few times, our class met face-to-face only about a dozen times. But for those few in class sessions, my students were filled with gratitude, and the hard work of my advocacy was well worth it.
While 2020 was different, we have all learned much and have grown stronger. May 2021 be equally as lovely. Virtual hugs to all!
