Yesterday I wrote a repeat about feminism. I guess in my subconscious it is a topic near and dear to my heart. After posting it, I spent the afternoon watching the Girls. I know that is nothing new for me. I love watching them and I love being home, but yesterday was different. I was home because I had to be not because I wanted to be.

I really didn’t glean as much from the show as I usually do. There was never an episode about a pandemic or anything that required them to stay home for an extended period of time. There was one episode where all three of the girls had the flu and couldn’t go anywhere for a week. I guess that is as close as I’ll get to tying this post to the show.

In that episode they were cooped up in the house and were really getting on each others nerves. I can imagine that after weeks of being told to stay in the house, many families will experience too much togetherness causing short tempers and few arguments. I am hoping that isn’t the case for the families that are together for the duration of this crisis.

As much as we all hate this virus that is causing us to be sequestered from the world, I am hoping that it will slow us down and make us appreciate things.  There is cause to be concerned. Some are losing pay, missing important events and parents are being thrown into home schooling all the while either trying to do their jobs from home or burdened with the worry of being off work with no pay.

I pray daily for our country and for the world. I pray for our leaders and for those on the front line. The doctors, nurses, grocery and restaurant workers, truck drivers and many others that don’t get the opportunity to just stay home.

We have seen the gambit of reactions to this pandemic. The grocery stores are barren due to panic buying. Some are wearing masks and staying locked in their homes. Others are giving complete disregard to the suggestions to stay home.

We live in the greatest, most free nation in the world and now we are seeing things that most of us have never had to experience. Churches, movie theaters, and restaurants have closed their doors. Visiting grandparents or friends has become forbidden.

My hope is that when all of this is over that we will have become better people. I wonder if there will be more smiles, more handshakes, more doors being held for a stranger? Will we have more intentional celebrations where we put down our phones and actually talk to each other? Will we not take for granted that there will always be milk at the store? Will we be a little nicer to checker at the store or the janitor at our school?

I pray that the answer to these questions is “yes”. I pray that this isolation from each other will not break our spirits, but give us time to reflect on just how busy and disconnected we had become even before this world crisis. When this is over I hope that we crave human interaction so much that we call a friend and invite them to lunch or coffee right now rather than just shooting a text and say lets get together soon.

I know that this is a scary time, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are still healthy, thank God for that and use this time to think about how this will change you. After the tragic events of 9-11, we saw our country grow closer and stronger. Out of the ashes came greatness, unity and faith. Sometime between then and now we lost that. I think that we can get it back. I know that this is a worldwide crisis, but the United States is an exceptional country and we will come out on the other side stronger than ever before. We will once again rise from the ashes and appreciate this great country that we live in. Hopefully we will never again take for granted our families, our friends or the strangers that we meet who do the jobs that kept us going through this crisis.

May God bless us all.

This has rambled a bit, for that I apologize. I just wanted to share some early morning thoughts.

Thank you for being a friend

MG