TIS 'A' SEASON: A PANDEMIC PERSPECTIVE

The holidays usually spark the phrase “Tis the Season”.  This year, however, Covid has me repeating a slightly different phrase…“Tis A Season”.     

When I am tempted to focus on the losses, or throw in the towel on caution, I actually find this phrase very helpful to say… “This is only a season”.

Everyone has been trying to find their own way of coping with this pandemic.  The battle is real!  

I myself vacillate between thankfulness, fatigue, and grief…sometimes all within the same moment!  Top it off with a heaping spoonful of guilt whenever I allow a sense of loss or frustration to overtake gratitude...  this could be a recipe for what Anne Shirley refers to in Anne of Green Gables as “the depths of despair”!  However, I find it helps me stay the course to repeat  the phrase...
“This is only a season, it’s not forever”. 

One of the hardest things throughout the pandemic has been not being able to visit my newest grandbaby in Florida! I just keep reminding myself 
I will ​get to hug and kiss her one day! 

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Words Of Encouragement

At the very beginning of the Covid lockdown last spring, I received an email from a friend with the following quote.  Throughout the months, I have found these thoughts encouraging.  Maybe they will encourage you too…

This is part of an interview from Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a survivor of the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”, one of the most brutal POW camps in Vietnam. When asked about his captivity and how he was able to deal with such harsh circumstance and uncertainty, he said…

“I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

When asked, “Who didn’t make it out [of the POW camp],” Stockdale replied,

“Oh that’s easy. The optimists. They were the ones who said, ‘we’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And then Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. 
And then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And then Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving. And then it would be Christmas again. 
And they died of a broken heart."
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“This is a very important lesson,” Stockdale continued. “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose-- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

It doesn’t need to be said that what we have experienced is nothing like the brutality of "Hanoi Hilton", but Covid can sometimes make us feel like prisoners.  Let’s remember…we WILL make it out of this, it just may not be by Christmas!  

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music to Lift yOur SPIRIT

Whether you are going home for the holidays or having to stay where you are, here is some delightful instrumental holiday music,  by independent artists from around the world!    CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!