Hope

School is closed for the next 14 days.  We won't go back until March 30th. We were supposed to be out of school for spring break all of this next week.  Even that week feels a whole lot different than what I had anticipated.  Now instead of being out and about, I will either be home or at my Mom's place.

My son lives in Madrid, Spain which has been hard hit by the Coronavirus.  Thousands are sick, schools and businesses are closed, people are confined to their homes.  This is a very serious situation.  I will follow the guidance of others and use social distancing and stay home. By doing so, hopefully we can avoid having this virus spread in the way it has in other countries.

We have certainly never experienced a situation such as this pandemic.  While  I take it seriously, I don't want to be controlled by fear.  I'm trying to view it as an opportunity to practice being more retired.  I enjoy being home, and God knows, I have plenty that needs to be done around here, but between being an AmeriCorps tutor and volunteering at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, I am often on the run.  During this next few weeks I'm going to use this as a time to work on my 20 Goals for 2020, which I wrote about in January.

One of the projects I am working on today is planning for my garden.  I used my little pot maker and paper that my sister gave me, to make more seed starting pots.  Last weekend I planted some coleus seeds and Big Girl Tomatoes. Today I started Jelly Bean Tomatoes, hot peppers, and sweet peppers.

I have nestled my little paper pots inside cups and mugs.  I have a massive collection of cups and mugs I have acquired over the years.  It is one of my favorite souvenirs to buy when I visit new places.  They bring back wonderful memories, but I just have certain ones I really like to drink out of.  Instead of using gardening trays, I went to Goodwill and found some plastic tea trays to hold my cups.  It may not be research based gardening strategies, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

We are all hearing about all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer that people have been hoarding.  Well, we all have our priorities.  I stocked up on the things that are most important to me.  Earlier this week, I made sure I had a good tea supply, and yesterday I stocked up on dog food.  Now we can stay in as long as we need to.

Planting a seed is full of hope, and that's what we need right now.  Hope, growth, and a sense of humor.  That and kindness will help us get through this difficult time.

Gratitude for Today

• 1. I am thankful for friends who are sharing hopeful and positive information and thoughts.
• 2. Laughter!  
• 3. I am thankful for my son and daughter.  Stay safe and healthy.

One of my other goals for 2020 is to blog more.  I am going to try to do that during this next few weeks.  It is a way to reach out and connect with others, at the same time I am spending time in my own space.  This is a chance to use social networking in a positive way.

Take care of yourselves, friends.  Stay safe and healthy and don't forget to reach out to others.

Hope

I flipped on the television this morning and was channel surfing when I saw an advertisement for an Emergency Food Supply.  It was running on one of the Christian stations.  It caught my eye, because just the week before I had seen a large display of these same buckets at Sam's Club.  Costco also featured them in an ad.

The Emergency Food Storage bucket as featured in the Costco Wholesale flyer.  3/23/17 - 4/17/17.

The speaker on TV was talking about how important this was to have not just because of weather emergencies, or power outages, but because of the coming Apocalypse.  What?  My first reaction was what is the matter with these people?  Isn't that God's choice, not ours?  Are these people trying to bring an apocalypse about?  I just don't understand!  Furthermore, why are they cultivating fear, and then trying to make money from it?

Then I went to church.  Today's sermon was called Receive Reconciliation, and in his message, Pastor Dave was talking about how divided we have become as Christians.  How we judge one another, and limit ourselves to a group that shares our same views, rather than reach out and share and communicate with those who believe differently.  You know, like I had been doing just an hour earlier.

Once again, I came to church in need, and received an important lesson which will help me through the coming weeks.  Our scripture was from Romans 5.  I especially like verse 2-4,

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us to the grace in which we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to the day on which we will become all that God has intended.  But not only that -- we even rejoice in our afflictions!  We know that affliction produces perseverance, and perseverance, proven character; and character, hope.

So I choose hope!  I choose to keep working to make this world a better place, by doing whatever I can to be kind and caring.   I choose not to live in fear.  I choose to try to be a better person who takes the time to listen and understand others.

Later in the day I met my sister to walk at Copper Creek.  It was a breezy but glorious day.  When I told her about the ad for the the Emergency Food Supply, she reminded me that this fear seems to be cyclical.  There was a great deal of talk about the end of times at the millennium just 17 years ago, and again a few years ago when we reached the end of the Aztec calendar.  I had forgotten about all of that.

I am grateful for hope, I am grateful for my church and Pastor Dave, and I am incredibly grateful for my beautiful sister, Jacci.

I really loved the greeting that we began the worship service with:


                                       "He drew a circle that shut me out--
                                         Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
                                         But Love and I had the wit to win:
                                         We drew a circle that took him in!"                                                                                      --Edwin Markham

I choose hope and love, and everything that goes with it!