As I awoke from my nap, I looked out of the window and stared at the skyline across the condos across from me…
Simplistic beauty.
It was Day Three of my “vacation” and I was getting pretty good at taking naps. Read a little, chat on the phone a little, and then nap a little. What a life to lead! I was supposed to be in Detroit celebrating my Goddaughter’s birthday and a weekend with my best friends… yet there I was on Sunday afternoon waking from my third couch nap of the weekend.
Naps are our friends.
I’m learning to process and adjust to this new “normal.” Social distancing has caused us to completely alter everything that we used to do and learn how to either do things remotely/virtually or not at all. There are so many things that I never imagined could be done differently but social distancing is paving the way for evolution and evolution gives way for the new. As my church searches for a way to have Communion amidst social distancing, I saw a priest allowing for drive-thru confessionals.
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Evolve or fail to exist.
I do not take lightly everything that has happened in the past few weeks. The 11,000+ lives that have been lost due to COVID-19 is nothing short of a tragedy and my heart aches for their families and loved ones. I think of an Italian-American family in New Jersey who lost four members of its family- in one week- due to COVID-19. My heart cries; I can’t comprehend that level of pain. Yet even in the sea of pain, I see some beauty blooming…
Parents are spending time with their children…
Children are learning how to enjoy the outdoors…
Churches, banks, and others are using technology to its fullest capabilities…
Humanity is allowing for kindness and generosity in spirit…
I’m finally reading Becoming by Michelle Obama…
Beauty is birthed in the dirt.
I went grocery shopping about five million times within the past 11 days and the one thing that I learned through all of my trips to Walmart, Food Lion, Wegmans, MOMs, Sam’s Club, and The Common Market is that when we allow the initial panic and fear to subside, we can calmly see that everything will be alright. Wounds heal, hearts mend, and life evolves. Change is an inevitable demon that catapults us from what we thought was good enough into what is great, giving us true beauty in the midst of ashes. Roses need dirt to grow and blossom. Trees need dirt to birth life. We need dirt to grow.
Beloved, everything will be alright. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow or even next week but we are resilient and we grow stronger from what we endure. I know that when all of this becomes a spot in our memory, we will look back and know that it has made us all the more stronger. I want to leave you with this song that I have been listening to for hours on end. I was listening to this on February 21st when I had a 30-minute anxiety attack… and yesterday when I had a 20-minute panic attack- its words and deeper truth give me a peace that I want to share with you today. I love you, dear friend, and I pray that the peace of God– which surpasses all understanding- would comfort you and fill you during this time of confusion and uncertainty.
God Happened To ME Ministries, LLC 