Dear Covid-19...

Dear Covid-19,

Thank you for reminding me how precious life is. What affects one affects us all. We are many people, many cultures and creeds, and yet, we are one.

Thank you for creating an opportunity to reject fear and focus on wise procedures. This has been a good time to do some much-needed cleaning, a little organizing, and a bit of priority assessment. May I do this from a place of love for myself, my family, and my friends.

With your arrival, I’ve reached a new awareness of our mortality. However many years we are privileged to live and breathe, all of us are equally human. Death does not exclude gender, social class, or age. Everyone I love and everyone I tend to judge shares this quality, which means I get to extend grace to each one, and to myself, in this state of weakness and uncertainty.

Because of you, Covid-19, I’ve considered how blessed I am to live in a medically advanced age. For thousands of years, people died from things we consider mundane. Because I have insurance and live where I do, I have access to healthcare in ways many don’t. May I never take this for granted. May I never think I am superior because of the time and place where I was born.

Covid-19, I thank you for the opportunity to recount times I was afraid and “the worst-case scenario” did not happen. I remember being saved from cancer, from having financial distress relieved, and from being healed from severe flus. What an opportunity to think on these things!

What a joy it has been to reflect on the words shared by Fred Rogers, to “look for the helpers.” As we mature, may we become those helpers.

Thank you for the opportunity to trust a God I will never fully understand. I don’t know why there is so much pain in the world or why bad things happen to innocent ones. What I do know is that when I take a deep breath, lift my eyes to the sky, and say, “Help, God,” something in me changes.

And so, Covid-19, I say, “Help, God,” and wait for a heavenly response to this need for healing.

-In faith, Heidi Beth Sadler

TELL ME:

How are you approaching the Covid-19 outbreak? What are your thoughts/feelings?

BOHEMIAN CHALLENGE:

Write your own letter to something you are afraid of.