Corona Induced Change

What a week huh?

Corona craziness has consumed our nation.

How difficult it is to get our heads let alone our hearts around the enormity of this situation that none amongst us has faced before.

Lives have been lost and more will be. 

This is the cold, hard, devastating reality of this situation that has been enforced upon us.

The disruption will be devastating financially to some and difficult to all who are left socially isolated.

All will be affected differently, but all will be affected.

These are challenging and uncertain times.

As a race, us humans tend to dislike uncertainty.  We like to imagine that we have some semblance of control over our lives and the presence of Corona shatters this illusion.

Personally, I’ve been through all kinds of emotions this week.  After watching the news on Monday evening, I felt stunned and emotional.  I just couldn’t comprehend the enormity or severity of what I was hearing.  What would it mean?

By half way through the next day I felt overwhelmed.

Then I heard there would be no Church, no Pilates and generally very little social contact.

My heart sank. 

How long would this continue for? 

How would I cope?

Would I still be able to work?

So many questions and so little answers.

A trip to the local supermarket for a few supplies didn’t help my mood.  I felt incredibly angry that the clearly fear filled and faith less had swooped upon the supermarkets like a swarm of locusts clearing everything in their path.

Really?

But then, something began to shift.

A new uprising of connection, caring and community began to appear left, right and centre.  Family, friends, neighbours and colleagues were appearing in new ways to show a united and collective approach.

I’m not sure that I have ever felt so connected, cared for or part of so many thoughtful, supportive communities before.  It’s not that they weren’t there before but they are now there in a more real and new way.

This new uprising of community spirit is powerful and heart warming!

Fortunately many realise that by pulling together, we can make this time all the more manageable for everyone.  

It is likely that just as in usual life, we will all need some form of support at this time but equally that we are all able to offer some form of support to others.

It is a time to look around and see the needs of others and be as willing to reach out, as to ask for and receive help when necessary.

We don’t know how things will unfold, how long they will continue or even what the new ‘normal’ will look like after this. 

Such a level of uncertainty is not easy to sit with.

We are all forced to see afresh that our security is not in our health, finance, jobs or indeed anything else.  All of these can be lost in an instant.

How grateful I am to know the God who remains stable and unchanging at all times.  He is the dispenser of a brand of peace, wisdom, strength, hope, comfort, guidance and help that this world cannot offer.  And it seems to me that we are all in need of these right now.

I have also been uplifted this week when reminded through all the times that I have sought solace in nature that the seasons of life continue regardless.  That whilst ‘normal’ life has been disrupted like never before, the beauty and wonder of creation continues to remind us that whilst loss and death are true and real, so too is the continuation of existing life as well as the birth of new life.

We will (most of us) come through this time.

We cannot stop or avoid it.

We cannot dodge it or make it go away.

We all have to walk through it.

But, we can choose in which way we do this.

Will we use the slower pace to reassess what is truly important in life?

Will we invest more time in connecting to God and each other, albeit using new ways to do so?

Will we choose to do our bit whatever that may to assist us all in coming through this as best we can?

The choice is ours.