You Were Prepared For This

I’m not going to lie and tell you, I know how to handle this specific situation that’s been thrown at us. That a global pandemic and virus that has spread across the world preying on the elderly and immunosuppressed is something I’ve walked through. What I am going to tell you is…

I, you, WE, are prepared for this.

We’ve been through things. Life, Hardships. Loss. Fear. We’ve faced them and we’ve come out on the other side. Some of us more graceful than the other but what we all have in common is that…

We have survived.

We’ve gritted our teeth, accepted the situation that was presented to us and then, done what we needed to do. Again, it wasn’t always pretty or easy,

but it was necessary.

Today as I sit here at home, I’ve already woken up with a twelve-month old, feed four children (multiple times), monitored and directed two pre-teens through their e-learning for the day, sat with and taught one first-grader, been on two out of three zoom meetings of my own, continued to feed and entertain a newly walking baby while she navigates her way around obstacle after obstacle within the walls of our home and it’s only three o’clock.

Lord, help me.

Life as I knew it is gone. A “new normal” is here for the time being. I don’t know when or if the kids will go back to school or get to see their friends. I don’t know when we will be able to travel, see family or get together with other families and friends. Plans we made have been canceled and plans we have been looking forward to are at risk of the same.

All of us have had to accept this new way of life and adjust to what our individual “new normal” will be. Many of us have lost income even jobs, stressed about food and basic needs, worried about our own or our family member’s possible threat to their health or even lives. Some have had to cancel weddings, graduations and business events. Important things they’ve planned for and looked forward to.

All of it unplanned.

So how do we cope? How do we wake up in the same walls we’ve been in day in and day out with the same faces we see day in and day out?

We remember.

We think back to the times in our lives when we’ve been hit hard by something unplanned.

We go back and remember how we felt when the unexpected happened and what we did to walk through it. We make a list of other things, hard things that have happened to us and meditate on where we’ve come. What life looked like on the other side.

We make a list of the lessons we learned, memories that were made, places we were taken to. Mentally, physically, relationally, professionally and emotionally.

Today, day 20 of being at home and away from anything considered “normal” or “social”, the thing that has gotten me through the tough parts of my days has been this…

“I’ve been through harder.”

I know I can’t speak for each of you but personally I can look back on the journey I’ve walked and confidently say,

“I’ve been through harder”.

I’ve had days, weeks, months and years living with chronic pain.

I’ve seen a bank account drop to negative and been stressed about making bills.

I’ve had a baby taken back whom I loved as my own.

I’ve been in the hospital on a ventilator when our daughter was only days old and our son was just twenty months to fight for my life.

I’ve lived moments I wouldn’t wish on anyone and wouldn’t choose to live again.

And I survived.

So this? This scary pandemic that’s threatening our health, our loved ones, our jobs, our security, our economy and much much more, is yet another “moment”. It’s another moment we’ll add for our list. It’s another moment in our lives that we will be able to look back on and say,

We survived.
We adjusted.

and we continued.