Here’s the situation: COVID-19.  Need I say more?

Where I live in Canada, we’ve just finished our second week of voluntary social distancing/self isolation or travel-related quarantine.  My city isn’t on lockdown, but many of us are doing our part to be proactive and “flatten the curve”, which is a term I keep reading.  Along with that one, every automated email I have got in the last 2 weeks seems to start with “there is a great deal of uncertainty” or “in these unprecedented times”.  It’s true, though worse things have happened in history, nothing quite like this has happened in many of our lifetimes.

Ignorance is Bliss

I prefer to live my life in a bit of a bubble.  I don’t read, listen or watch the news, because the news rarely reports positive things.  When they do, it’s like a 1 minute fluff piece about a water skiing squirrel or something, reserved for the end of the show; perhaps to leave the viewers on a happy note after spending the previous 29 minutes instilling fear.  My mom likes to remind me that I “need to be aware of what’s happening” and I’m not completely oblivious to things of importance, but I don’t like to inundate my mind with them.  Watching the news reminds me of going to the doctor for a minor thing and finding out some other major thing is wrong.  You felt fine all this time, but now you have something to worry about, only because it was brought to your attention.

I’d like you to find me someone who watches a constant stream of news and isn’t affected by it.  Generally these people are stressed out and filled with anxiety, yet they can’t figure out why.  This is why I prefer my bubble.  I don’t need to be over-informed and start having panic attacks over things I can’t control.  That doesn’t seem like a good use of my time.

Since I don’t keep constant news updates in my ear, I almost forget that COVID-19 exists.  My routine hasn’t had to change much either, so it feels like business as usual!  My work is considered an ‘essential service’, so I still go to the office every day.  My gym closed, but I was already doing about 2 workouts a week at home, now I just do all of them at home.  I’m single, while most of my friends are busy with spouses or children, so I didn’t see a ton of people throughout the week/weekend anyway and I have lived alone for almost 4 years now.  Netflix and podcasts were already my companions and loneliness coping mechanisms before all of this went down, so social distancing hasn’t been too much of a stretch for me!

Silver Linings Playbook

One of my favorite pastors, Steven Furtick, said in his message last week that he’s been hearing “we’re all in the same boat”, but he disagreed and countered with “we’re not all in the same boat, but we are all in this together”.  Everyone is struggling in their own way right now.  The extroverts are dying inside (figuratively and literally), while the introverts are almost thrilled with their sentence to isolation!  People are being laid off or suddenly becoming stay-at-home parents or full time teachers.  Others are actually getting the virus.  It can all be a little too scary and with no real end date in site, it gets overwhelming.  I don’t want to make light of that or the actual struggles people are facing, but in these “uncertain” and “unprecedented” times, I’m trying to find the upside amidst COVID-19!

It’s March. In Canada.

I love my country, but as I get older, I’m beginning to hate the cold more and more.  Every time I brush snow off my car I mutter “why do I live here?!”.  But then I see pictures of bugs from warmer climates and it puts that into perspective!  If there’s one thing that Canadians should be able to agree on, it’s that of all the months this could have happened, March might be the best option.  Imagine this happened in October and the school year was indefinitely cancelled then.  That would mean an additional 5 months to home school on top of the current 3.  Imagine this happened right as the weather started to turn in June and we had to stay inside during our already abbreviated summer.  March can still be a little too cold, or snowy and the ground is soggy from the winter, making it difficult to do either winter or spring activities, so if we have to be stuck inside, it may as well be now to get it over with!

It’s Two Thousand and Twenty

I know a lot of people are bored and feel like they’ve already watched everything they possibly can on Netflix, but imagine having to social distance, self isolate or quarantine PRE streaming services/on-demand TV/smartphones or the internet!  Even though we are being encouraged to stay apart, we are still so connected!

If this happened 20 years ago, working from home wasn’t a simple alternative.  There was no file sharing via this mysterious cloud.  There was no video calling or video conferences.  That kind of futuristic voodoo was reserved for The Jetsons!  We can do all of our grocery shopping and have it delivered to our door without even getting out of bed and now we can attend church in our living room!  We have so much of everything at our fingertips and can almost seamlessly carry on with our lives, what do we really have to complain about if the hardest thing we’re asked to do is stay at home?

R & R

Busy.  Everyone is always so busy.  Ask someone how their day was or how their week was and the reply is usually “busy”.  We tend to live our lives in overdrive, moving from one thing to the next with no break.  Maybe it’s because we don’t want to disappoint anyone or maybe it’s because being busy makes us feel important.  Being accessible through our phones 24/7 doesn’t help either.  It seems a lot of people keep themselves so busy that when they’re given time to rest, they don’t even know how to do it!

I’ve never really been good with busy.  I don’t like having too many things back to back or always being go go go.  I could maybe attribute that to my primary love language of quality time.  I’d rather spend a fulfilling amount of time with one person, than superficial moments with many people in a row.  I know the times when I’ve kept my calendar stacked, I get cranky, I get run down and then I get sick.  I’ve learned that it’s in my best interest to maintain balance, even if that means saying no to some things and suffering with my FOMO later.

I don’t know if other people realize how important rest is.  When we get fatigued, our immune system is weakened.  If we’re worn down, we get moody, we can’t handle stress, we lack concentration, lose energy and we create irregular eating and sleeping patterns.  When you continue at a fast pace for too long, your body will usually, and without your permission, crash, forcing you to rest, often by way of getting sick.

Now that your calendar has probably freed up for the next month, maybe you can recognize where you’ve been spreading yourself too thin.  Were you always busy doing things you wanted to do, or were you doing things everyone else wanted you to to do?  Try to make the best of this rest period.  Maybe reset your priorities.  If God took the 7th day to rest knowing how important it was, perhaps we should take a queue from Him!

Arm Yourself

When was the last time you really appreciated the people providing services you normally take for granted?  Like, your delivery guy or even a grocery store clerk?  Or ladies, what about the team of professionals who keep us looking good every few weeks to every few months?  Seriously though, when have you actually thought “man, I’m so thankful this person does their job!”?  I know I’m happy they do, but I just assume they’ll be there whenever I need them.  I bet you’re grateful now for anyone who risks working with the general public so that a service can be provided for you!  You’re probably extra appreciative of the ones who provide a service that you need but can’t currently get.  I know I am!  And I know this thing better not last past May ’cause Imma need my hurr did and my brows done.

When was the last time you ran errands, came and went as you pleased or did the simplest thing like hug a friend and realized what a privilege it was to be moving around so freely?  What about the last time you woke up happy to go in to work?

When I interviewed with my current employer back in 2000, I had another interview scheduled the same day.  After leaving both interviews, I wanted the other job.  Their office looked like a log cabin and had a cute little reception area, while my office felt cold and barren!  Of course, it was the office I didn’t like that called me with an offer and beggars can’t be choosers!  I could’ve never imagined that when I took the position, I’d still be working there 20 years later.  I even quit for 2 years to pursue a different career and was offered my position back when the person who replaced me retired.  I’ve spent a total of 18 years at my office and unlike other jobs, there’s never been a day that I dreaded going in.

When this virus first started to affect my city and other people were getting mandatory time off, I was a little jealous!  But then stores started to close their doors indefinitely.  And then people started to get laid off.  Where 2 weeks ago it was just routine to get up and go in Monday to Friday, I now emphatically thank God every morning and every night for my job!  The job I might not have taken for some cute log cabin.

It is not lost on me how lucky I’ve been so far and I don’t know your situation, but if we choose to look around, chances are, there is somebody worse off than you.  Find something that you can be grateful for, even if it’s just the air in your lungs.  Gratitude is a weapon.  Use it.

Heal the World, Make it a Better Place

You know the saying “everything happens for a reason”?  It’s annoying right?  I mean, it’s easy looking back and recognizing where things did have a purpose, but in the moment, hearing that is like nails on a chalkboard.  I don’t think we’ll ever be able to look back and reason why this happened.  There’s just no point to this virus and it seems like it was preventable if it did start as they say; from bat infected meat sold at a market.

There’s a lot of conspiracies flying around right now too.  Population control, economic wars, the government’s doing, etc.  I’m not gonna lie, I do find some random virus that came out of nowhere and has the power to spread across the world and change the global economy a little suspicious, but we’ll never know the truth so there’s no point dwelling on why this is happening.  The fact is, it’s here and we have to deal with it.  All we can hope for is that we improve and grow stronger from this.

There are way too many negatives surrounding COVID-19, let’s try and put our focus on the personal positives we can find within it.  Maybe this whole thing is teaching us empathy or deepening our faith.  Maybe we’re learning to appreciate people in a new way and it’ll strengthen our relationships when we can all get together again.  Moving forward we might find joy in the simpler things and be grateful when we have to pop out to run an errand, rather than grumble or complain.  However this might be improving you, don’t revert back when life returns to normal, because it will.  We will get through this! 

Be kind, pray for the world, don’t hoard toilet paper and wash your hands ya filthy animals!