Written before the stay at home order here. I don’t know if that changes much of what I said, other than that it’s all just a bit more exhausting now that it’s not a choice.
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How quickly things change, from the days (just a few weeks ago) when I’d be angry when Amazon over-promised and (literally) under-delivered. If their site would say something is in stock and available for delivery tomorrow! and then multiple days later it was still “delayed.”
Then, I just felt lied to.
Don’t lie to us. The truth is always better than false hope.
That principle still stands, by the way. Hopeful but realistic expectations are more sustaining than happy falsehood.
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These days, I’m just so grateful if something is in stock, or even has an “expected available” date. Even if it’s delayed – Well of course, stock changes, people are out sick or sheltering, it impacts every stage of the process.
These days what would have been irritation gives way to gratitude. If I can still get stuff to my folks, and keep them out of a store for the moment (hang on, store owners and staff, I hope to keep them around so they can come back to you when all this is past). If supplies can get to my sweet friend who had struggles even before coronavirus was a fresh new threat. If a small supply of in-stock items from their priority list can get to the local food bank. If this chain of people still going to work and trying to protect themselves while they help provide for us is still there — I can literally be nothing but grateful.
Thanks for being there, as long as you can, staffs and teams at Amazon. Thank you, team at Peapod. And at delivery services in general. At grocery stores in general. At carry-out restaurants. At utilities and rescue services. At all the essential businesses. All the essential services.
If you’re showing up at work because that’s what the nature of your work requires, and we require it to survive – thank you.
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If you’re showing up for work by staying home because your work doesn’t require face to face contact – thank you (and thanks also to your leadership for making a wise choice to enable that). If you’re staying home, because you know that’s what’s best for everyone who possibly can, and just doing what you can to keep yourself and your family – even your friends, via social media – in a fair mental state. Thank you. You’re saving lives and saving sanity.
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If you’re furloughed because your business had to close for a while, and maybe scared about providing for your family or making rent – or you’re the business owner who had to close and are worried about your family as well as your staffs’ – or you’re a landlord trying to do right by your tenants who you know are going to be making tough choices for a while and yet still worry about how you’re going to make your mortgage payment to the bank and unsure whether they’ll be as understanding- none of this is easy*… – in all those cases thank you for staying home for all of our good (and I pray for provision in all forms for you all. For us all.)
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For this moment in time, staying home, staying safe and not spreading the virus, is what most of us need to be doing.
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Not everyone can though.
All the crews building and refitting facilities into hospitals and care centers.
All those engaged in maintaining the food and grocery supply.
All the teams making or chasing down medical supplies anywhere and everywhere they can, and getting them where they are most needed.
All the research teams scrambling to come up with better, faster, more accessible test options and developing viable vaccines.
Thank you. Thank you all.
And thank God for you.
And of course, thanks is insufficient for the front line medical teams trying to save lives, putting themselves in harms way to do what they can.
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If you’re praying for any / all of the above, and for your friends and neighbors, for your community and nation, and the nations of the world. If you’re praying for healing and renewal – of bodies, minds and spirits. If you’re praying for God to work all this – even this – to His glory and for our good…
Thank you, also.
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We have so much to be thankful for, actually – if we remember to look for it.
It is clarifying, how dependent we all are, and how interdependent we all are.
And it is encouraging, the ways big and small we can choose to stand together – even by (for the moment) standing apart.
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We are apart, but we are not separate. We are all – all of humanity – in this together.
God bless you and yours, wherever you are.
It will be April when this posts. There are so many April birthdays, I’m sure to miss one. So a preemptive and all-inclusive happy birthday to the April babies! (Just in case)
* PS It’s a new month so… if you have a mortgage and lost your job, or you have a mortgage as a landlord and your tenants lost their job, check in with your bank because from what I hear (YMMV) they should be able to defer your payments to the end of your term if you ask (but you have to ask).
A lot of reputable lenders and suppliers will work with their customers to work things out when hard times come– deferments, rate limits, payment plans etc– and it is generally better to call them and proactively figure out a plan that mutually works with them, vs leaving it out there as an unknown and just not pay.
aka gringita 