TAKING IT FOR GRANTED

We may have explored this subject before . . . for someone who likes systems and keeping track of what's around, I've been lax in categorizing my blog post topics. So, yes, we may have been here before.

But we haven't been here--on the subject of taking things for granted--since COVID-19 entered our collective lives. Now, we're finding, all the old rules and assumptions and things we counted on may--or may not--be valid. So let's look at some areas in our lives.

We take it for granted that:

#1 - tomorrow's a new day--another day in which to get things done, make plans, work toward a goal.

Really? For some people--those facing life-changing illnesses and possibly death, there is only a "perhaps" about tomorrow. Never mind doing stuff, making plans, working to meet a goal.

#2 - the sun will rise and set, never mind clouds or rain or thunderstorms or whatever meteorological phenomena come our way.

Nope. For some folks, the sun will neither rise nor set. Weather has practically nothing to do with it. Health has just about everything to do with it.

#3 - God will provide.

Yes, indeed. But keep in mind--God may not provide what I want or what you want. Our prayers and petitions and wailings don't guarantee the result we seek. The point is, keep praying, keep seeking.

#4 - life will resume as it was before we had a virus, and restrictions; before businesses closed and jobs were lost; the assumption is: one day we'll wake up and it'll be sometime in 2019.

Lotsa luck with that one. If we haven't figured out this many months into COVID-driven life that some of these changes are permanent, we better wake up and smell the coffee. Take the temperature of life. Examine the signs of change that have come about in our lives.

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I'd love to think the changes aren't drastic, that much of our previous lives will be preserved, that we'll "come out on the other side" of the pandemic in better shape than when we "went in."

I desperately, some days, want to take it for granted that life is good . . . that yes, we're all suffering to one extent or another, but it's all for a good cause . . . that all I have to do is pray harder, help others, follow the restrictions set up by people who know more than I do about how to keep from spreading the virus . . . promise to be a better person . . . .

But I have no special access to the future, no sense that what I'm doing is "the answer," no better vision of what's going to happen, or even might happen. About the best I can offer--what any of us can expect--is that the virus will one day be at an end. How? I don't know--wear itself out, find a new place to invade (Mars, maybe?), be conquered by our health workers. (That's a  prayer that has a good chance of being answered as we want it to be. So keep on praying, keep on seeking.)

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Thursday's Child was founded on the premise that there's always something to celebrate--something that needs to be recognized and appreciated. Could be large, could be so tiny no one else will recognize it but you. 

With COVID-19, we're finding it hard to celebrate anything large. Virtual presentations help, but after a while, some of us find they don't. So I offer some of the tiny things in my life that hardly anyone else might see:

--a neighbor followed around by his two very small grandsons; they "work" together in the yard

--a friend who has been through a double mastectomy, had treatments, and is now again working in her home-based business, keeping her family together, and enjoying life

--church members keeping in touch with each other; the elderlies mostly by phone or email

--library services! Being able to actually pick up and leaf through a book--ordering a set of DVDs from the Evergreen service--having auto-renewal for the items we don't return to the library on time (only works if no one has it on hold)

--services willing to do phone conferences (haven't worked out how to get my teeth cleaned by phone or my hair cut--still working on those)

--rediscovering recipes I used to make; having time to try new gluten-free recipes (GF chicken pot pie at right--mmm!)

--playing the organ for my own enjoyment (I still make as many mistakes, but they don't bother me now)

These are small things I can take for granted. Maybe for only a short time, but I accept them and give thanks for them for as long as they last.

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Make a list for yourself. See how many ways you can celebrate during a dark time. Or maybe you don't see it as a dark time--celebrate that. Write somebody a note--email counts--telling them you appreciate them. Or call up, if you're a phone-body. Give a hug--real or virtual, depending on who it is on the other end of the hug--just because you're happy someone is in your life.

See? Celebration is still possible! Just don't take it for granted that we've lost so much--we may have gained as much (or more), if we look for it.

Have a blessed week! (And while you're at it, take a look at the colorful trees!)