Video Check In

Here is a short reflection on our 5th! week of living with pandemic restrictions. I forgot to add some prayer suggestions for you so here they are:

• those who are working to keep all of us safe: hospital staff and first responders, including the cleaning, kitchen, and administrative staff who often go unnoticed but are so essential for the smooth operation of our healthcare facilities; first responders of all types; the supply chain folks who are ensuring our stores are stocked and our packages are delivered; the transit employees who have been keeping all those folks and so many who do not drive getting to their essential places; the folks volunteering their services to mental health programs; scientists and medical researchers who are working overtime to find treatments and vaccines.
• parents, particularly those of us with special needs kids, who are often trying to balance home and work in new and impossible ways and without the supports that make our lives work; for all our children who long for routine and friends and less-stressed parents; for family relationships in general – including those navigating their relationships with adult children and elderly parents; for grandparents (and other family members) missing their (grand)kids.
• for our most vulnerable for whom social distancing isn't cuddling up with Netflix and take out, but the closure of every restaurant that let you use its bathroom when you'd scrounged enough change for a coffee; for those for whom social distancing is a return to using drugs alone, risking overdose; for those who spend their lives offering support to the difficult, the downtrodden, the desperate and who watch in fear and hopelessness as another threat approaches their communities.
• for those who grieve in this time, including the families and friends of the victims of gun violence in Nova Scotia; for those who walk the scared and hard journey towards death for themselves or a loved one.
• In thanksgiving for the small mercies and graces that each day brings: sun, flowers, smiles, waves, bells and birds.