Pandemic

Like a tornado that is seen fast approaching, with very limited time to run for cover or prepare in any meaningful sort of way, COVID-19 has touched down in America.

And within what has seemed like minutes, minutes that are simultaneously sped up and slowed down, everything has changed. Everything has been tossed in the air and then flattened.

Schools are closed.

Jobs are gone.

Planes are no longer flying.

Stores are shuttered. 

Hospitals are overwhelmed with the sick and the dying and the dead.

And all of us, all of us, are taking refuge in our homes. We are riding out a tornado for two weeks, or two months, or four months or a year or whatever it is the doctors and the scientists and the financial analysts are predicting because that is all that we have to go on. 

Every day there are new rules and new statistics. 6 feet of distance. 25% of workforce. Over 10,000 cases. 150 dead. 15 days. 1 million tests. 101 degree fever. 

And every day we hear it: It is going to get worse. It is going to get worse. It has to get worse before it gets better.

Why does it always have to get worse before it gets better?

-----------

I am grateful.

Can you believe it? 

In this moment of prolonged quarantine, empty grocery store shelves, a plummeting economy, a pieced together life of balancing work and childcare, I am so grateful.

I have been through this before. I am prepared for this moment.

I look around and I see people panicking because their lives are drastically and instantly changing, their freedoms are disappearing, they are experiencing loss or the fear of loss.

I know this feeling. It is familiar. I have been through this before. I am prepared for this moment.

My bones feel strong right now. I feel steeled. I feel ready for anything. 

I've been through a tornado. I've been tossed in the air and flattened. I survived. 

I know this moment deep inside me. I know sudden change. I know I can survive.

-----------

My whole life changed in an instant, and I changed with it.

Now our collective lives have changed in an instant, and we will change with it.

We will not take things for granted: our health, our jobs, our relationships, our children, our grandparents, our schools, our bank accounts, our friends, our food, our shelter, our doctors...

And everyone will know new things:

Nothing is permanent. 

Everything can change suddenly.

Nothing is predictable.

Everything is vulnerable.

Nothing is to be taken for granted.

Everything is out of our control.

We will be more scared. 

We will be more skeptical.

We will be more wary.

We will be more wise. 

We will be kinder.

We will be better for this. 

We will be better for having been through this.

We just have to get through this.