2020’s Halfway Point/Burdened AND Bolstered

Today I am grateful for the health that my family and I have, and the health care available to us should it be needed. I am grateful for all the doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, scientists, epidemiologists, first responders, and so many others who continue to work so hard to help those with COVID-19 and to help bring this pandemic to a manageable place. 

Today is July 1. The halfway point of the year. 2020 has already been one heck of a year, and there’s half of it left yet. I don’t know if I feel more discouraged or shocked or resigned. I do know that resilience and gratitude and humility are hanging around to help pull me along. 

If I think back to January 1, 2020, I am shocked at how quickly things changed. The year began with me reflecting on “How could it be 2020 already?” and focusing on the excitement and bittersweet aspects of Sam’s senior year. That seems a distant memory as we reeled from the sudden and very significant changes to our lives, work, and school that came in mid-March and are with us still. 

There are fears and worries, deep sadness, and far too much negative discourse in the news. COVID-19, cancer, racial and political instability and a pile of uncertainly about a pile of life’s usual happenings leave me pretty discouraged some days, numbly resigned on others. If six months can flip our lives this topsy-turvy, what will the next six months bring?

I am burdened by uncertainty. We all are. Our world is. Uncertainty is not new, but this magnitude is. 

Life never comes with guarantees. We just tend to become complacent in the security we know.

What can bolster us at a time of such weighty worry and loss and confusion?  Laughter. Tears. Gratefulness. Grace. Faith. Family. Friends. A walk in the early morning. A phone call. A pause to watch squirrels play. 

One another. We can bolster one another with kind compassion and a willingness to be part of the common effort that is needed to bring us through this. 

The second half of this crazy year will unfold in ways known and unknown. One day at a time, each doing our part for the collective good, we might just make it.