When life gives us lemons, we’re supposed to make lemonade, right?  What about when life gives us the Corona Virus?  (I’m thinking  this is where the limes come in!  After all, you can’t have a Corona without one.)

As many of you know, travel blogging is my thing.  As you all know, traveling isn’t really on the table right now.  So . . . Plan B!  I’m itching to write and share during this time, and I have been praying and seeking for a way to do it responsibly that may bring folks even a bit of joy. I realize that each day that passes brings with it more opportunities for fear, but also hope. Hope springs eternal.

This is what I’ve found to be true so far – it seems many of us are a bit bipolar about this pandemic. One moment we are calm, socially distancing with the best of them.  We buttoned up in our tidy little houses (though mine is becoming increasingly less tidy every moment I’m in it).  We are finding solace in the simple things – reading, gardening, cleaning the dang garage, efficiently checking off our to-do lists all kinds of random things we never have time for.

Or, strike all of that if you are suddenly homeschooling your kids.  Then not so much solace.  True confession – I homeschooled my kids for 8 years by choice.  So, for those of you walking this road, I understand all too well the state of your homes and your potential sanity.  But either way, you’re all just living your lives the best you can and feeling hopefully feeling pretty good about it.

But then, wham, we turn on the news, or dare to ask Alexa to tell us what’s going on, or we chat on the phone, or God forbid we talk to a neighbor (from a healthy distance!),  and full freak-out mode ensues.  And I’m not even mentioning much about Facebook, Twitter and Instagram here.  It’s just too much, and frankly it doesn’t take much to fuel this fire of fear within us.

Choosing Hope

But wait – what if we just don’t?  What if we just refuse to be caught up in the fear?  I don’t mean ignore the CDC guidelines.  No, that scares me even more – stay home people!  (Also I may have had a dream about some Orwellian group of nondescript dudes in a van coming to take me away for hugging my kids.)

But, what if we “just say no” to fear?  Say no to anxiety?  To worrying about what we absolutely cannot possibly control?  Say no to being overwhelmed with the sadness of precious times lost?  To the feeling that this new world we are living in may have to become the “new normal” for an unknown span of time?  Even to the possible loss of income?  Or the unimaginable – the loss of someone we love? I know.  It’s not that easy, and it’s not my intention to treat it lightly.  But doing our best to tamp down the rising angst does seem like a good recipe for daily life in general, though it’s a concept I can certainly struggle with. It’s not an easy fix, and not one I claim to have the tools to solve.

But What Can We Do?

It hasn’t taken long for the world to rise to the occasion in so many ways. Everywhere you look, people are instinctively “making lemonade”.  We just can’t help ourselves – hope springs eternal. Fun ideas to pass the time, virtual tours of museums and national parks, silly videos.  And now lots of genuinely helpful philanthropic ideas to support neighbors and friends and local businesses.  Honestly, in the end, I’m certain we will all have learned quite a lot about ourselves and our culture. Maybe it will help us improve our quality of life moving forward.

My thought for now isn’t to pontificate on all the good that can come of this, though I think there is much.  Nope – I’m thinking less weighty thoughts.

                                                

A Humble Plan For Hope!

A few days ago on my Instagram and Facebook pages, I started posting photos of spring here in Virginia.  Because it IS spring – the most beautiful of seasons, and yes, it’s still happening, despite fear of the apocalypse!   Yes, there’s fear and dread and general concern infesting our day-to-day.  But,  I determined that my way to impart a little joy would be simply by sharing the beauty around me as God unfolds yet another year of rebirth of all the things.  My yard changes daily – and the trees along the trails I hike with Lexi the Golden,  and the drive through neighborhoods on the way to pick up toilet paper at the store (wait – that part must have been a fantasy).  It’s all opening up and showing off its glorious gifts to those who just open their eyes and look.

For many parts of the US, though, spring has not yet sprung.  Or for those of you who live in the heart of a city where the season is told more by the size of the pothole in the road than the buds on the dogwoods. Or worse yet, you are basically quarantined inside for the duration. For you people, spring seems just a twinkle in someone else’s eye.

A Bit of Hope for Today

Alexander Pope’s quote from his poem, Essay on Man, keeps popping into my head – “Hope springs eternal, within the human breast”.   We truly are just so darn resilient.  This seems a perfect sentiment for this time.  We move forward with hope!   In my house, Hope is also the middle name given to my sweet Lexi the Golden.  Her name, in full, is Lexington Hope.  Adding her to the family in what were fairly unusual circumstances represented hope in our lives in a dark time.   (The Lexington part of the story can be found in this blog post from last summer  Lexington Hope – Dog’s Tale (in two parts). And so it only seems fitting that I share a little of her and a little of spring in the days ahead.  They go together!

These posts and pictures will not be life-changing.  They are not essential to sustain human life.  But they just might brighten your day.  And hopefully they are a tangible reminder that hope does indeed spring eternal.  This crazy moment in time will be quite the story to tell the next generation. Hopefully we can say that even in the midst of crisis, we took time to notice God’s faithfulness and creation around us as it reveals another season of hope.

                               

 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come •

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man