Waiting for the other shoe....

Raise your hand if you're really good at waiting. Perhaps you love the unknown and rejoice in being put on hold. Well this is a time for you, as we wait for the virus to do it's thing. For most of us waiting is not our cup of tea. It's tough to wait and wonder if we, or loved ones, will get sick. Wondering when the crisis will pass and what our life will look like is hard . Perhaps we're concerned about our funds and preparation. So much about which we can worry.    Grace University Lutheran posts daily Lenten reflections. Into my email box came this note of grace today. "If we do this right For those who still can, stepping outside right now is decidedly different. Even at busy times of day the primary sounds are from birds, not cars, not people. The early migraters are returning the year-round winged residents have changed their tune from hushed winter chirps to rollicking spring song. Some eggs are laid, some are hatched. The natural world does not know this coronavirus. Sap is running, ice is thawing. Geese and swans fly in mighty Vs sometimes in hundreds. Buds are thickening. Leaves of strawberry plants are starting to green up. The first hint of yellow has appeared in the goldfinches at my feeder. Seedlings are germinating breaking the surface, spindly but upright rising toward the grow lights on the stand. Beavers swim, otters slide. Young bucks are growing antlers. And here we are. We humans who have been abruptly halted by something we cannot even see. Maybe it’s our turn. From Dutch Elm to Oak Wild to Spruce Budworm to endangerment and extinction, life here on earth is not without peril. Often, if we are honest, by our hands,. So how are we, with our big brains, to handle this? What might we glean from our Wild cousins so familiar with adapting? Perhaps it’s fortitude and the good sense to live with rather than against nature. Perhaps we will recognize connection to one another in bolder more unflinching ways. And, if we do this right— and by that I mean with grace and compassion— perhaps we’ll see ourselves in strangers. Really see ourselves for the global family that we are. And wrap our hearts and our mighty intellect around protecting, preserving, and caring for all who inhabit this beautiful world. And even the world itself. As we stand steady together in sickness and in health. By Chris Heeter ―From The Wild Institute, shared with us by Theresa Gienapp God of all of nature, help us to live into our new reality with grace, and to inhabit our world in ways that honor our connectedness. Amen." Thanks, Theresa! Bless you all in your waiting. Takk for alt, Al