Silver Linings?

Somewhere between the panic and the memes coming with the corona virus, I’m seeing some very good things.

With kids being unexpectedly out of school, and parents forced into a routine they may not be familiar (or comfortable) with, people are sharing so many options - from scheduling suggestions to learning opportunities to virtual field trips.

With some of these kids faced with missing breakfast and/or lunch, I have seen communities rally and offer to somehow provide the missing meals, and the school districts themselves stepping up to provide curbside meals-to-go to fill this gap.

Our local food pantry is changing how residents pick up their needed items to protect both the residents and their own staff and volunteers, but they are doing everything they can to continue to make sure everyone is fed.

​I’ve seen many posts in our community facebook groups expressing gratitude to those in our local grocery stores who are going above and beyond to keep shelves stocked - and clean. Folks are also posting when they find a place that actually has items that are unavailable elsewhere to help others in the community.

People are stepping up and stepping in to offer whatever help they can.

On a larger scale, we, as a country, have begun tapping into our own resources as the government is attempting to contract with 3M to domestically produce much needed surgical masks for those on the frontlines - doctors and nurses in the hospitals and medical facilities.

”Necessity is the mother of invention,” so they say. In our current state, the needs are as expansive as they are diverse, and I am starting to see peoples’ creativity and resourcefulness blossom with all sorts of outside-the-box solutions. And they are not keeping them to themselves, either; they are graciously sharing them to benefit the larger, even global, community.

We may be distancing ourselves physically, but I see so many people connecting with and supporting one another in ways they might never have imagined before this. Maybe this pause is allowing us to see each other as sojourners in this human race, not as competitors or rungs on our personal ladders. We're meant to live in community, but how that community shows up in the world … well, that’s up to us. And I think it’s pretty fantastic how folks are showing up.

There are a few other silver linings to these storm clouds.

Staying in means we’ll spend less money on gas and have more time for all those ‘honey-dos’ typically relegated to the weekends.

It’ll give us opportunity to actually use (or learn how to use) all those wonderful technologies that allow us to work from home or keep up with classwork, to stay in touch with our elderly parents, or to find a creative way to have our meet-ups virtually. In fact, many churches this week have found a way to broadcast their services, observing social distancing but finding a way to stay connected. And a by-product of that is that those who are unable (or unwilling) to go into a church building, or those outside of driving distance from a local congregation, now have access to a form of connection that wasn’t open to them before.

Maybe you’ll be able to cut into that pile of books you’ve been meaning to read (or to sit down and start writing that book you’ve been wanting to write), or binge on every episode of every Star Trek that has ever been - all in chronological order!

What if this time could be a reset for you, giving you a minute to breathe and regroup before jumping back onto the hamster wheel that is life?

This social distancing isn’t forever, and you get to choose how you will view - and live in - this time.

Will you remain in a state of panic and stress, anticipating the worst? Or will you “look for the helpers,” and look for ways that you can be a helper?

There are good things in the midst of this storm. If you look for them, you will find them.

The choice is yours.