This is a Wakeup Call

           It’s been a weird week over in our household. The week started like many others with Hallie getting ready for school. I slipped her school folder in her bag alongside her lunchbox and water bottle, slipped on my hard-sole slippers with my hair slung in a messy bun, coffee in hand, Cole in my other and we made our way to drop her off for a just a regular school day. Fast forward to today, now Saturday morning, things are looking a little different.

            

Hallie will not be going to school Monday morning; grocery stores are flooded with worried people buying out paper products, canned goods and personal ‘essentials.’ Everyone is being advised to stay inside and stay safe and protected from a virus that is spreading quickly. Many of us are scratching our heads wondering how this happened so quickly, I know I am.

            

On any given Saturday, many of us get up and grab coffee and breakfast at the diner, maybe make a quick pit stop over at the bank before they close at Noon and then we grumble that we have to go get groceries. I know I have. I grumble on a weekly basis about how I HAVE to go get food for my family and figure out what to make them all week. I literally COMPLAIN about having to do this.

            

This weekend our eyes are wide open and we are feeling the heat of the comforts of our usual day to day lives being stripped away from us and exposed. We are taking pictures and posting them, yelling at each other for panicking.  We are worried we won’t be able to have the pick of the foods we LIKE and the soft toilet paper that we PREFER. We are stressed that we have to become innovative and possibly make our baby wipes or disinfectant cleaners.  

             

Instead of recognizing that we are a blessed group of individuals that have the pick of so many things that bring us comfort every single day for years upon years, we are fighting with each other, panicking, worrying and hunkering down in fear.

            

This is a wakeup call, to humble ourselves and recognize what we have in this country and to not take it for granted. We need to be kind, innovative, and supportive, to stop the spread of fear and begin the spread of prayer.

             

We are a spoiled nation who gets angry when we don’t get our way and it needs to be recognized.  We don’t know the future, we won’t know what will happen next or how this virus will affect our communities, families or the way we live our ‘normal’ lives. But maybe as we feel the heat and discomfort of the effects of this virus on our nation, we need to pause and let that heat refine us and make us better and more thankful.