May 1,2020 COVID-19- Wise thought

I read this in “Our Daily Bread” and thought I’d share: 

  As I shared with my counselor my roller-coaster of emotions after a stress-filled week, she listened thoughtfully. Then she invited me to look out the window at the trees, lush with autumnal oranges and golds, the branches swaying in the wind.

Pointing out that the trunks weren’t moving at all in the wind, my counselor explained, “We’re a bit like that. When life is blowing at us from every direction, of course our emotions will go up and down and all around. But sometimes we live as if we only have branches. Our goal is to help you find your own trunk. That way, even when life is pulling from all sides, you won’t be living in your branches. You’ll still be secure and stable.”

What a great way to look at life, especially during this Corvid-19 mess. We’ve stayed in, washed our hands, worn masks and social distanced. We’ve done our part. 

Our government has issued orders to close down nonessential businesses, opened up business to make ventilators, masks, gloves, surgical gowns, testing suppliesand Lord knows what else.  They’ve busted through red tape rules for the trucking industry, for medical research and laboratories. 

As we watch the numbers. 

Recoveries are still higher than deaths. 

The Governor of SOUTH DAKOTA never implemented “stay at home” orders. This is what she said: 

“Thanks to a strong commitment and respect for the principle of personal responsibility, South Dakotans have dramatically changed the trajectory of our initial COVID-19 projections”. 

“The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety. They are the ones that are entrusted with expansive freedoms – they are free to exercise their rights to work, worship, and play – or to stay at home, or to conduct social distancing. The calls to apply a one-size-fits all approach to this problem in South Dakota is herd mentality, not leadership.”

What a wise leader. We all have a personal responsibility to take care of ourselves and not hurt others along the way. 

We all miss our babies and our lives. 

If we’ve learned nothing else in this mess, I sure hope we’ve learned we are responsible for our own actions. Our health, our diet, exercise, personal hygiene and everything that applies to our body. We can’thelp those underlying conditions within us (asthma, cancer, other disease and sicknesses) but those things we can do, we should do. 
This mess isn’t going away tomorrow, so we need to learn to live with it as best we can. NOT EVERYONE WHO GETS IT DIES! 

We need to be sure our “trunk” is strong with deep roots, so when the winds blow & the storms come, we may lose some leaves, but we will still stand tall once it passes. 

My #2 baby girl Melanie, has a quote on her car as a reminder for us all: 

(She’s another strong & wise woman I am proud of) 

Stay calm, stay safe, wash your hands & pray for our World.