My Reflections

A Pandemic-al Birthday Celebration!

Day One: A PANDEMIC-AL BIRTHDAY

I could probably write a funny poem about this and still may do it later on for my personal entertainment and amusement. While there is nothing funny about people getting sick and dying, life is full of humor if you just look for it. For some of us, humor is a way to handle stress. Humor is a way to seize the moment.

Seize the moment comes from carpe diem, used as an admonition to seize the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future. Our lives are lived one moment at a time. We can't always choose what happens to us, but we do get to choose how we respond to it.

The way I see it, we have two choices. We can be miserable and complain about every inconvenience that comes along and everything we don't like with this COVID pandemic or we can choose to make the best out of every moment. Life is too short to be miserable all of the time. I choose to make the best out of it.

Okay, we don't like having to spend our days of celebration in quarantine or “social distancing”. This has definitely added a challenge to every day life. Even going to the grocery store has turned into an unimaginable nightmare, little alone trying to celebrate anything.

How can we make the best of every moment in these circumstances? We can count our blessings and focus on the positive. We can look for humor and beauty in little things. We can choose to love ourselves and each other. We can take time to reflect on the true meaning of each and everything we celebrate and hold dear.

One of the things I hated the most was all the restaurants closing their dining rooms and not being able to attend church. One of the things I enjoy is sitting at a restaurant table away from home to enjoy my meal rather I am alone or with someone else. Somehow, Zoom Sunday School, although enjoyable, just isn't the same as getting together at church.

Even though we had to endure inconveniences like this, we have adapted rather nicely. Now we have curbside pick up service. We are able to get restaurant food delivered to our door at home. We all learned new ways of doing things. Zoom and video chatting have become valuable assets as loved ones are dying and quarantined in hospitals.

The nurses and doctors on the front lines of the fight against this pandemic don't get enough credit and recognition. They put in a lot of hours, quarantine for weeks at a clinic away from home fearful, not knowing who will live or die, and sacrificing themselves and their family’s well-being.

So go ahead and make the most of whatever situation you are in. Go ahead and celebrate every moment you can in the best way you can. Live your life to your best ability and enjoy it while you can. Pandemic or no pandemic, we never know when today will be our last. We never know when we will draw our last breath or our loved ones will draw theirs. Love hard, grieve hard, be passionate about everything you do. You never know what the little things, like a hug, a smile, a greeting card, or phone call will mean to someone else. Leave a positive mark upon this earth, one worth remembering.

Happy 21st Birthday, WDC!


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