What Will We Do With The Time That Have Been Given Us?

It is dawn.  

The mountains are outlined in a gentle glow of the first light of the day.  The birds are singing and everyone is still fast asleep.  I've been watching as the sky gets brighter and brighter, each second more illumination lighting the world.  The blossoms on the bushes and the fat buds on all the trees just waiting for the warming days to call out the green fluttering leaves.  Spring is heavy with rebirth, ready to deliver us all the beauty it's kept nurturing through the cold dark winter. We just have to be patient and let nature take her time and know that the season of cold and death and darkness will always be followed by warmth and life and sunlight.

I can't help but see these parallels in our own lives.  There is so much heavy winter where it seems there simply is no hope of the spring coming in our lives.  I keep thinking of the quote from JRR Tolkien, between Frodo and Gandalf in the dark mines of Moria:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. 

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I think we all so deeply wish this did not happen to us.  We wish we were back to our normal lives that didn't involved so much isolation and careful deliberate living.  We mourn for those who are suffering.  We worry about those who may suffer.  And we do not know how long this will last and how much our future will be affected by this.  There is great uncertainty we are wrestling with on the daily.

We didn't decide this.  None of us had any part in what is going on now.  All we get, as Gandalf says, is to decide what to do with the time that is given us.

What are we doing?  

What are our days filled with?

I've been asking people and without fail, they have been beautiful, quiet stories of peace and joy.

One friend is taking this time to learn about her ancestry and gather stories of her parents' lives and record them and add them to their person histories.

Another friend is simply being with her children.  They have such packed days that they rarely were all together and when they were, it was rushed and anxiety filled between activities.  Now they have hours each day to be together: to play games, ride bikes, watch movies, and most of all laugh and visit with each other.  She said, I love this.  Not what's happening in the world, but this time I have to actually be with my children.

My sister, after coming out of the fog of the first few weeks of this trauma decided to turn off all news notifications and make this time count.  She read a quote that said, Think of this Corona Virus as the best thing that ever happened to you.  She decided that that was going to be her truth.  She gathered her family together and gave each person a job to help pass the time.  My personal favorite was "the minister of fun" who would be tapped every time things got a little dark and they were in charge of making fun happen.

I think, despite the darkness and fear and uncertainty, many of us are finding our way through this virus with more optimism and joy that we believed possible.  I think it is in the darkness that we see how precious light and love are and how much we don't want to let go of them.  There is fun and hope to be had in the middle of any place and situation if we let it come.

So I am throwing open all my windows and doors and willing it to fill up my world.  Come!  I say,  Come in and stay, you beautiful feelings of joy and hope and laughter!    Let's do this!

And so far, it's been pretty amazing.

(And I am still not reading the news or listening to anything about anything--that's working so well too.  All that I know is my own little world of people and stories that come along with them)

Hiking with a very gassy Piper

Walking in a stormy evening 

Hiding in trees

Cheering and holding up signs for our Teachers

Healing face masks

Cookies . . . 

Meals, beautiful meals together

project finally getting done that we've been trying to get to for years!

literally basking in the joy of birth and the bright future of babies

Neighbors lifting our spirits with Social Distancing Bingo

Hikes with my sister

Holding the perfect wondrous Hero and feeling honestly feeling the truth that the future is bright

And beautiful

And so much fun!

A little surprise to brighten people's day

Time to play and visit together

And of course make beautiful food 

And be brave and make purchases believing that there is a bright future of hope

Today we are choosing to be part of a world wide day of Prayer and Fasting to bring healing in every form from this pandemic.  

I believe in the power of our united prayer (however you conceive of this) to bring more healing and hope and peace than we could ever thought possible.

May this end soon and until then, may we use this time we have been given the very best way we know how.

Happy Spring.  Happy Easter.  May this time of year fill you with hope and knowledge the sun does come out, the leaves burst through the tight buds, and the world will be renewed.