We are blessed

Okay, this is going to be a bit long, but a revelation occurred to me this evening after Hal and I watched an amazing acoustic session with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood from their home studio, and then flipped to worship sessions with Paul Baloche and then with Michael W. Smith... all on Facebook. And that revelation caused a change of my mindset in this crazy time that we are all living through right now.

While this situation is stressful and traumatizing, and I would never underplay the seriousness of what is going on right now, we are not the first generation of humans to live through a pandemic. Just search the word "plagues" in Google and the first link that comes up is for the "6 most devastating plagues in history". Or search for the Spanish Flu of 1918. All devastating and horrifying pandemics with unbelievable and shocking death tolls.

But here's the thing that I realized this evening... though we are living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are blessed. We are being wisely asked by our diligent governments to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus and, while it may be a bit lonely sometimes, we are not alone. We are blessed by the incredible technology that we have access to. We can connect with our friends and family over FaceTime, Skype or the phone... music artists are doing live shows on Facebook from their homes... churches are making worship services and sermons and devotionals available online every single day... gatherings of people all over the world can happen through Zoom... internet service providers are waiving extra usage fees so that we can have constant access to the internet... organizations are making resources for kids and adults available either completely free or at deeply reduced prices... and the list goes on.

When people were quarantined or isolated during any other pandemic in history, they were more alone than we could ever truly understand. They didn't have access to technology... they were at home either alone or just with their families and with very little, or no, contact with anyone else. And they probably had very little idea what was really going on either, because they didn't have access to media like we do (although too much exposure to the media reports can also be overwhelming and stressful).

We are also blessed by our advanced health care systems, especially in Canada, which didn't exist during any of the other pandemics in history except for H1N1 in 2009 (SARS in 2003 was an epidemic, not a pandemic). We have amazing health care systems that are doing their best to test and then treat those who test positive for COVID-19, but even those systems can only sustain so much before they become overwhelmed.

So, here's the thing... we are being asked to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus, to save lives, and to not push everything in our society to the breaking point (the economy, the health care systems...). While this is a very difficult, challenging and stressful time, we need to see the blessings of this time and use the technology that we have to connect with people when we feel lonely.

Most importantly, we just need to STAY AT HOME unless we absolutely need to go out and to practice social distancing if we do need to go out. We also need to protect those who are still working to provide us with essential services. My husband works in a pharmacy, so he goes to work five days a week and comes into contact with goodness knows how many people who may or may not be carrying the virus. And then he comes home and we have to go through a crazy routine to try and make sure that our home stays safe for us to live in.

So, if you need something, go out and buy it... or if you need to go for a walk, go for a walk somewhere that isn't going to be where everyone else wants to go... and otherwise STAY AT HOME and use other means to connect with your friends and family. Every day, we need to remember how blessed we are and that we need to work together to get through this. 💜