Jerry Lindsey wrote this essay.
The spring and summer have entered and exited without much fanfare, but something doesn’t feel the same. Anticipation of the colorful fall transitions, Halloween celebration for the youngsters, preparations for winter, and the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas await us. But something is missing.
Have days, weeks, and months of seclusion formed an attitude of unknowing that everyone is striving to define? Is the pressure of the unknowing resolution of the pandemic creating a different you? Is the hostility that is surfacing throughout the world, especially the U.S.A., creating questions without apparent answers? Are the doors that usually open and provide solutions not opening to paths of relief?
Whatever the stimulus is that camouflages the world–that usually offers a fall of color and anticipation–it definitely has changed the world as we knew it.
The year 2020 will be remembered as the funnel through which so many surprises passed and the year that no one will want to relive. December 31 will not be a celebration of a profitable year past. It will only be a reason to close the book on 2020 and start a 2021 adventure of positive activities and renewed hopes. Look forward, and generate a happy and profitable lifestyle, that was abandoned only a few months earlier.
Recognizing a few of the challenges we are encountering today may offer an opportunity to step back. Examine a few of the hills we were forced to climb. See if there is a smaller mound or shorter path that allows an easier formula for the same result. Today’s slower lifestyle removes the need to rush or cut corners to complete a task. That time might be used to ask one’s self a few questions that may surface a better way. Just the thought of performing a chore with a renewed confidence in an easier path to the endline is a positive in itself.
Use the extra time that the pandemic has temporarily built into everyone’s lifestyle. Examine the possibilities of change and how these changes may improve your tomorrows. Perhaps these crisis points in our daily schedule will change in a positive way.
The path to a better and healthier tomorrow carries an unknown timetable, but each of us can improve the scenery along the way. We can make an effort to improve the small chores that will unite to make the trip a positive one.
Stay positive and healthy and know this too shall pass!