Welcome Spring!

Shout with joy, it’s spring!!

New beginnings, new birth, and new opportunity. Nature has reminded me that life goes on in spite of the dreary winter or the dreary 2020. The azaleas are in full bloom in my yard and the dogwood trees have bursts of white blooms among their branches.

It’s so easy to get caught up in what’s not right in the world and lose sight of this very moment. This moment right now when you are reading this post is where all your power exists. My past will never be again, and my future has not yet arrived. All I have is right…this…very…moment, with you.

What are you doing? How are you feeling? Who are you with? Where are you sitting or standing? Look around at your surroundings.

Now I want you to focus on something nearby that is lovely or interesting or odd. Something that catches your eye, and then spend 5 extra seconds really looking at it.  an object, a person, a pet, the fuzzy sock on your foot… and imagine what it took for that object or person or tree or pet to get to you. Who else was involved, where did it come from, what went into the making of it?

As I sat in the hallway of the public health department following my Moderna vaccine recently, I thought of all the people who made that experience possible. I closed my eyes and said a quiet thank you to the scientists who created it, their assistants who helped, the housekeepers who cleaned up the labs, and companies who funded it; the people who made the machines they used, the human volunteers in the trials who were the guinea pigs for the rest of us, the makers of the needles and the syringe’s, and those who boxed up the vaccines and those who drove the trucks or flew the planes to deliver them to all parts of this vast country so that I could have access to this little shot. I was overwhelmed.

I’m so thankful for so many millions of people who did their jobs so I could get this small but powerful vaccination.

The end of the pandemic is near, we’re at the middle of the end, but we aren’t there yet. Keep the faith, keep following the CDC guidelines and we’ll be celebrating TOGETHER soon.

We are all in this world together. Nothing comes to us untouched by another. We depend on each other for everything. So, take an extra 5 seconds to really look around and celebrate our fellow humans who have done their jobs so we can have things that bring us joy.

And welcome the arrival of (or the promise of) Spring!