A newsletter didn’t seem appropriate this month, so I decided to put down a few thoughts I’ve been thinking for the last couple of weeks.

I find myself counting the blessings and privileges I’ve been fortunate to have in my life, privileges that I mostly take for granted.  Things like food, shelter, safety; employment and health; freedom of movement and choice.  I think the hardest thing we’re all dealing with, beyond the challenges to these basic needs we all have, is a loss of control.  Its scary to face a challenge and a threat that we can’t see, can’t trace, can’t track.

Never before have most of us experienced the anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and stress that we’re all living with now.  If you find yourself experiencing one or all of these things, know this:

You’re not alone.

 

I find myself encouraged by the response and support I’m seeing in our community, across the country, and around the world:  

• A family singing their great grandmother happy birthday through the window, to show her their love and also protect her;
• People putting signs in their yards, holding them on the corner, delivering food, to show support and thanks to the incredible health care workers risking their own lives to take care of the rest of us;
• Communities, nonprofits, for-profits, and schools, distributing food to children and families who need it;
• And the list goes on… 

These community efforts, these stories, this resilience, are what helps me maintain my optimism and hope.

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

 

Emily Dickenson

 

It is in the most challenging times that we see the best of humanity and the human capacity for support, love, empathy, and compassion.  We’ll all make it through this, as long as we don’t forget the most important resource we have in times like these:

Each other.

 

Wishing you health and wellness, in every sense of the words,

The CDR Family

 

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much” – Helen Keller