Today was one of those days I got to begin with lots of prayer time. I had several hours to read the Scripture and have silence. It was really consoling. I actually prayed about how I do not want the quarantine to end: all the driving other people around, having meetings, doing s-t-u-f-f; the social pressures on all the kids, the wear and tear of daily life at school where some kids ignore you, others laugh at you, others set the bar higher than you can jump that day. Social life at school is harder than I realize. And all the kids are much lighter and happier without it.
Where will be be next year? Will the kids go to the same schools? Will we even be in Italy any longer? Despite some effort at figuring out our future, I am at a complete loss. The pandemic is so baffling, so incredibly hard to comprehend, partly because we cannot see the end of it. It was much more comforting in the early days when they said, "Stay home for 2 weeks so we can flatten the curve." That is a laugh-out-loud joke now. While Italy is showing a little bit of improvement with some smaller daily numbers of cases and deaths, the government has been clear that any relaxing of the quarantine will be very slow and in stages. This is a long-term event and I am curious about how the U.S. fares in comparison to Italy. Most Americans in Italy don't want to go back to the U.S. since its measures are so relaxed. It seems much more dangerous there. Living with the dramatic "Unknown" is something I am having to get comfortable with. In truth, we never know the future. We might live with the illusion we can see ahead, but truly, life can take huge, unexpected turns at any moment. So I suppose this way of life is just more true. What a mystery life is.
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