Saturday, August 7, 2021

Remaining Strong in Perilous Times

When life as we know it from day-to-day gets upset, how can we be ready? The truth is, we can't always. Things like COVID19 take us by surprise and our personal worlds get flipped-turned upside down, and it's serious trying to come to grips with all that has happened. Is there a way to cope successfully? We have to try.

Hold on to your hope. Trying to get our bearings comes with fear, pain and tears for so many of us. Work life has changed. Family situations have changed. How we come and go has changed. How you adapt to our new conditions will come with many decisions you will have to make, often each day. When life is at its most difficult, the answers don't always come easy, but they come. 

A starting place is realizing you are truly at a "starting place" that may require you to bear down hard and move inch-by-inch, but progressively, toward a more secure and comfortable time and place. It will take all the hope you can muster up, but change will come as you go.

"Change the things you can, and accept the things you can't." I'm sure you know those words from the Serenity Prayer. They hold great truth. For some of us, our lives and circumstances have been changed forever. We have lost people we loved. We lost businesses that we depended on. We had jobs with benefits and security. A lot has been lost for so many. In the midst of it, it can be difficult to think futuristicallly about everything getting better, but it certainly can; and, it certainly will as life progresses. Keep your faith focused on moving forward, changing things that you can: getting a new job. Rebuilding your business. Eventually buying a new home. Establishing a new normal. Finding happiness again. 

We can't change the loss of those we love, but we accept the pain and grief, and know that even though we won't get over those losses, we can and will get through the paralyzing grief at some point.

Learn everything you can from this experience. All of us have learned something important and significant from the past couple of years of dealing with this pandemic. I learned to be stronger. I learned that I could quickly adjust to an upsetting condition, even if I didn't like it or want to. I learned that when required, I could hunker down and be still. I learned that the world can change in a split second. I learned that we only have so much control, and it's very little. I was dazed by it. I was amazed by it. I'm still learning stuff from it.

The list of lessons from this pandemic is long and in some ways very wearying. I don't plan on taking anything I'm learning for granted. As I wish better times ahead for all of us, I hope you won't either. Stay strong. ~ S.R.F.

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